Rio Tinto Plans $600 Million Investment in Solar, Battery Storage for Australia's Pilbara
30 November 2022 - 9:50AM
Dow Jones News
By Rhiannon Hoyle
Rio Tinto PLC said it intends to invest $600 million to build
two solar farms and battery storage in Australia's Pilbara region,
to help lower the emissions from its iron-ore mining operations
there.
The world's second-biggest miner by market value said it plans
to construct two 100-megawatt solar-power facilities and
200-megawatt-hours of on-grid battery storage in the remote part of
northwest Australia by 2026.
The investment is part of the company's efforts to decarbonize
its Western Australian iron-ore operations and is in addition to
the 34 megawatts of solar power installed at Rio Tinto's new
Gudai-Darri iron-ore mine.
"We expect to invest around $3 billion to install renewable
energy assets as well as transmission and storage upgrades in the
Pilbara as part of our commitment to halve our emissions from the
Pilbara by the end of this decade," said the head of the company's
iron-ore business, Simon Trott.
Rio Tinto said initial funding for its first standalone
100-megawatt solar photovoltaic system on the Pilbara coast has
been approved.
Construction of the roughly 225,000 solar panels, which will be
built to withstand the Pilbara's cyclonic conditions, is expected
to start next year ahead of commissioning in 2025, said the
miner.
Write to Rhiannon Hoyle at rhiannon.hoyle@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 29, 2022 17:35 ET (22:35 GMT)
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