Solar Power For Nickel/Copper Mine In Western Australia

Image: PublicDomainPictures

Zenith Energy has announced it has entered into an agreement to build a hybrid solar power facility at Independence Group’s Nova Operation mine in Western Australia.

Nova Operation is situated in the Fraser Range, approximately 380 kilometres from the port of Esperance. In its first full year of production (FY18), the mine saw a total production of 22,258 tonnes of nickel and 9,545 tonnes of copper. It expects to better those figures this year, plus produce 850 to 950 tonnes of cobalt. All three play an important role in new energy technologies – for example, in solar batteries.

Currently the Nova Operation is powered by a diesel-based power station that is owned and operated by Zenith.

Zenith Energy (ASX:ZEN) says it has executed an amendment to its Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Independence Group to build a hybrid diesel/Solar PV power station of approximately 26MW capacity, with the solar component generating approximately 12.5 GWh of electricity annually. As for the capacity of the solar aspect, that was previously reported as 6.7MW while the project was in the proposal stage.

“This development represents the first fully integrated commercial hybrid diesel/Solar PV facility in Australia and is a step forward in future renewable energy solutions,” said Zenith Energy Managing Director, Hamish Moffat.

Zenith Energy primarily focuses on delivering gas, diesel, solar and hybrid generation power solutions in remote areas in Australia and South East Asia. The company has more than 500MW of generating capacity in its portfolio.

Independence Group NL (ASX:IGO) has been making ongoing efforts to decrease its greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, while having a positive impact on its bottom line.

“At IGO we believe in the green energy future and are committed to renewable energy sources as we strive to reduce our carbon footprint,” said Independence Group Managing Director, Peter Bradford. “The development of this innovative hybrid energy solution will also improve our cost structure with targeted renewable power insertion of up to 50% of demand via the Solar PV facility.”

Solar energy will play an increasingly important role in delivering cost-effective energy for Australian mining operations, which are often a long way from the mains power grid. Among installations already up and running is Sandfire Resources’ $40M DeGrussa Solar Project, which was commissioned in mid-2016.

DeGrussa solar facility | Sandfire Resources

The facility incorporates 34,080 solar panels (10.6MW capacity in total) and 6MW of  lithium-ion battery storage. Generating an estimated 21GWh of electricity annually, it’s saving approximately 5 million litres of diesel per annum (around 20% of total diesel consumption) and avoiding 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.