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The solar-plus-storage site in NSW (pictured) features a 3MW/6MWh BESS. Image: Pacific Energy.
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.
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https://www.pv-tech.org/australia-pacific-energy-claims-first-off-grid-solar-plus-storage-plant-to-power-nsw-mine/
