Pacific Energy has announced that a 26 MW off-grid power system featuring solar and battery energy storage is now fully operational and powering mining company Tronox’s Atlas-Campaspe mineral sands operation near Hatfield in southwest New South Wales (NSW).
The project includes an 11 MW solar farm, a 3 MW / 6 MWh battery energy storage system, 12 MW of diesel generation and 13 kilometres of high-voltage powerlines. The project has reduced the number of diesel generators on site from 41 to six and consolidated the power supply into a single location.
Pacific said the power generation facility, delivered under a 10-year build-own-operate power purchase agreement, is now fully operational after its functionality was successfully tested on the mine site’s operating processing plant.
The system includes a “hydrocarbons off” functionality, enabling the site to be powered exclusively by renewable energy when solar power production outweighs mine site load, which Pacific expects will be most days.
Pacific, which has included provisions to accommodate more renewable energy sources to support the planned future expansion of the Atlas-Campaspe operations, said the new system is expected to provide up to 40% renewable energy to the mine’s total power supply, reducing Tronox’s diesel usage by nearly five million litres per year.
The Atlas-Campaspe system is the first power generation facility delivered by Perth-based Pacific in NSW and forms part of the company’s expansion into Australia’s eastern states.
Other projects in its development pipeline include a 30 MW hybrid system that will power Iluka Resources’ Balranald mineral sands development in southwest NSW. That system, announced earlier this year, will comprise a 10.6 MW solar farm and a 5.4 MW / 3.2MWh grid-forming battery energy storage system backed by 14.4 MW of diesel-fuelled generation.
Pacific, owned by Queensland government-owned investment manager QIC, has contracted capacity of 946 MW across 48 sites nationally.
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