Rio Tinto intends to spend an additional $600 million in renewable energy assets in the Pilbara to decarbonise its iron ore operations in Western Australia.
In a statement, Rio Tinto said that by 2026, the investment would fund the building of two 100MW solar power facilities in the Pilbara and 200MWh of on-grid battery storage. In addition, the recently completed Gudai-Darri iron ore mine has 34MW of solar power installed.
The Pilbara coast’s first big stand-alone solar farm, a 100MW solar photovoltaic plant and related transmission infrastructure, has received preliminary finance from Rio Tinto. Construction, which would include the installation of roughly 225,000 solar panels designed to resist the cyclonic conditions of the Pilbara, is set to begin next year, with project completion scheduled for 2025.
Rio Tinto is consulting with State and local authorities, as well as traditional owners, regarding the project and the necessary approvals. The final capital approval is scheduled for the second quarter of next year.
These new projects are estimated to save roughly 300,000 tonnes of CO2, which is comparable to a 10 per cent reduction in overall Scope 1 and 2 emissions from Rio Tinto’s Pilbara iron ore operations based on 2021 levels. It will also save the corporation $55 million per year in gas expenditures by displacing around 30 per cent of its present gas usage in the Pilbara.
This additional investment is part of Rio Tinto’s previously announced goal to complete the installation of a 1 gigawatt (GW) renewable energy system in the Pilbara as part of a global pledge to invest $7.5 billion to cut emissions in half by 2030. This will include significant investment in transmission infrastructure to support Pilbara’s full decarbonisation beyond 2030, including electrification of mobile and rail equipment, which is anticipated to require up to 3GW of installed renewable energy assets.
Rio Tinto Iron Ore Chief Executive Simon Trott said with acreage, access to people, and substantial wind and solar resources, the Pilbara is uniquely positioned to benefit from renewable energy. Trott stated that the Pilbara electrical grid is Australia’s largest privately-owned grid, guaranteeing that we have the initial infrastructure needed to convert to renewable energy.
“We expect to invest around $3 billion to install renewable energy assets as well as transmission and storage upgrades in the Pilbara as part of our commitment to halve our emissions from the Pilbara by the end of this decade,” Trott added.
