<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/significant-milestone-off-grid-mine-runs-155-consecutive-hours-on-100-pct-renewables-and-engines-off/>
"The Bellevue gold mine in a remote part of Western Australia is claiming
another major record after completing 155 consecutive hours running the
facility on 100 per cent renewables, and with “engines off.”
The gold mine – with an average load of around 12.5 megawatts (MW) – – has
achieved average renewable shares of well above the 80 per cent it targeted,
often reaching into the 90 pct range on a monthly basis, and an average 93.8
per cent over February.
In early May, the facility ran for more than six and a half days running
entirely on renewables – courtesy of its 27 MW of solar, 24 MW of wind, and the
15 MW, 33 MWh of battery that stores excess output and sends it back to the
micro-grid when needed.
“This is a significant milestone, not only for the project, but for what is
possible in the Australian energy sector and demonstrating nation-leading
progress in renewable energy for remote mining operations,” Zenith Energy,
which built the hybrid power station, wrote in a LinkedIn post.
“The system is designed to meet at least 80% of site energy needs from
renewables, and moments like this show what that looks like in practice –
especially with the right weather conditions.”
Bellevue Gold already claims to be the world’s first net zero emissions gold
mine (scope 1 and scope 2), although it achieves some of this with offsets, and
is yet to decarbonise its mining equipment and transport, as Fortescue is
aiming to do by 2030 at its much bigger iron ore operations in the Pilbara,
where the average load is 800 MW.
Still, the new record for “engines off” is believed to be a world first at such
a facility relying on wind and solar as the major source of power, and beats
the achievements of the much smaller King Island mini-grid off the coast of
Tasmania, where the average load is around 2.5 MW.
A number of different off-grid mines are achieving very high level of
renewables – usually much higher than predicted – with Lynas Gold achieving a
record 95.7 per cent renewable share over the entire March quarter at its Mt
Weld lithium mine."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
