Western Australia-based developer Pacific Energy has successfully commissioned a 26MW solar-plus-storage site at the Atlas-Campaspe mine near Hatfield in southwest New South Wales (NSW).
The newly operational system integrates an 11MW solar PV power plant coupled with a 3MW/6MWh battery energy storage system (BESS). It also includes 12MW of diesel generation connected by 13km of high-voltage powerlines.
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According to a LinkedIn post by Pacific Energy, the project has dramatically reduced the site’s reliance on diesel generators, cutting the number from 41 to just six while consolidating power supply into a single location.
The company also claimed that the solar-plus-storage site marks the first off-grid power plant to supply a mine site in the state. The mine is owned by American worldwide chemical company Tronox, which is primarily involved in the titanium products industry.
The Atlas-Campaspe project follows several other significant renewable energy developments by Pacific Energy, several of which feature solar-plus-storage.
For instance, the company completed a 61MW solar-wind hybrid renewable energy project earlier this year to power a gold mine in Western Australia.
The hybrid power system, delivered under a 10-year build-own-operate agreement, adds 61MW of renewable energy generation to an existing 54MW gas-fired power station at the Tropicana mine located 330km northeast of Kalgoorlie, at the junction of the Yilgarn Craton and the Fraser Range Mobile Belt.
It features a 24MW solar PV plant, four 6MW wind turbines and a 13MW grid-forming BESS. The mine is co-owned by global gold mining companies AngloGold Ashanti Australia and Regis Resources, which have a 70% and 30% stake, respectively.
Last year, Pacific Energy penned a deal with mining company Gold Fields to deliver a 35MW solar PV power plant at the St Ives mine site, located around 80km south of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields region.
The company also secured a 20-year power purchase agreement with Horizon Power, Western Australia’s energy provider, for Exmouth, a local government area in the Gascoyne region, to run on 80% solar PV-derived renewable energy.
In Volume 42 of PV Tech Power, PV Tech explored the use of solar PV in Australia’s mines and how the technology is helping unlock the country’s green metals opportunity.
