- Fortescue plans to deploy massive 5.4GW wind, solar, and battery storage hub.
- The Pilbara renewable assets are integrated into the company’s $700 million Project Energy connect.
Fortescue Metals Group, led by Andrew Forrest, has announced plans to power its Pilbara mining operations and other green industries with a massive multi-gigatonne renewable energy hub combining wind, solar, and battery storage.
The 5.4GW project’s plans are submitted to Western Australia’s Environmental Protection Authority. Forrest’s newly formed Fortescue Future Industries and its Pilbara Energy subsidiary will construct them. The WA EPA stated that the renewable energy hub, dubbed the Uaroo Renewable Energy Hub, would be built on the Uaroo and Emu Creek Pastoral Stations, approximately 120 kilometres south of Onslow. The 5.4GW project, which will be open for public comment the next week, proposes generating electricity from up to 340 wind turbines, a solar farm with a capacity of up to 3,333MW and a battery energy storage system with a battery energy storage capacity of up to 9,100 MWh.
The Pilbara renewable assets will be integrated into the company’s $700 million Project Energy Connect. Including a $250 million transmission project that will install 275 kilometres of high voltage transmission lines connecting Fortescue’s mine sites and enabling them to be renewable-powered.
According to Fortescue, the new proposal will allow FMG to reduce significantly and eventually eliminate its reliance on gas and diesel-fired generation and diesel-fueled mobile plant, which currently consume hundreds of millions of litres of fuel per year.
“Western Australia is well-positioned to participate in the global renewable energy transition,” said FFI CEO Julie Shuttleworth. “FFI is investigating the possibility of establishing a renewable energy hub at Uaroo in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. This will contribute to Fortescue’s industry-leading commitment to achieve carbon neutrality in its mining operations for Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030”.
As large as the Fortescue project is, it is not the largest in Australia.