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 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 March.
In early May, the facility ran for more than six and a half days running entirely on renewables – from 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.
