Four of Australia’s largest off-grid hybrid renewable energy projects have been signed in just over six months, accelerating decarbonisation in Australia’s mining sector as it jostles for global competitive advantage and to become a global superpower in the energy transition.
Northern Star Resources Ltd. is the latest Australian miner to sign a large-scale renewable energy Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for its Jundee operations in northern WA with Independent Power Producer (IPP) Zenith Energy. This follows the two companies announcing an early works agreement for the project in January earlier this year.
In just over six months Liontown Resources’ Kathleen Valley project, Bellevue Gold name’s sake project, AngloGold Ashanti’s Tropicana and now Northern Star’s Jundee mining operation have all signed PPA’s for four of Australia’s largest off-grid hybrid renewable energy projects.
Across these four projects there will be 102MW of Wind, 76.7MWp of solar and 58.3MW of battery energy storage with renewable energy contributing between 50 to 80 per cent of total power generation at these sites. The Liontown and Bellevue PPAs are greenfield developments while AngloGold Ashanti and Northern Star’s PPA are for operating mines, with the wind, solar and battery being retrofit and integrated into existing gas power stations.
A continued shift to renewables is key to achieving Northern Star’s 2030 targets and will remain an ongoing focus beyond 2030, as they turn to electrification of their mobile fleet. Northern Star’s CEO Stuart Tonkin said, “Implementing renewables at such scale is an important investment and commitment that we have been able to progress at Jundee because of the strong relationship with Zenith Energy. It means Northern Star are transitioning to renewables in a way that is cost effective, maintains security of supply, and achieves more sustainable operations.”
Common to three of these landmark projects is IPP Zenith Energy. Their dominant share of these decarbonisation projects positions Zenith Energy as preferred IPP for large hybrid renewable energy projects in Australia and supports their own aggressive, but they believe realistic commitment to net zero by 2035.
Zenith Energy’s MD and CEO Hamish Moffat said: “Everyone, from our Board to our newest recruit are aligned with the company’s net zero target and we are proud that with the signing of recent PPA’s – among the largest islanded off-grid renewable projects in Australia – Zenith Energy will achieve and exceed its interim net zero milestone of reducing by 20 per cent the carbon intensity of the business by 2025 from our 2020 baseline. A target which includes scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.”
As the mining sector delivers on its net zero goals by deploying renewable energy for both greenfield and brownfield projects the IPPs including Zenith Energy and their peers EDL and Pacific Energy will be key enablers and beneficiaries with substantial growth of their businesses.
