Bigger than Godzilla! -CleanTechnica

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription, on Patreon, or on Stripe. Help us produce all the original, high-quality content we publish week after week despite the challenges of AI deleting content, anti-social media, inflation and other obstacles.

Fortescue’s plans for the Pilbara include wind turbine blades that are larger than Godzilla.

As the Fortescue boss rubs shoulders with King Charles III and chats about sustainability, under the Commonwealth Nature Initiative, progress continues towards true zero in Western Australia’s remote Pilbara. Watch Andrew and Charles’ video here.

As part of Dr Andrew Forrest’s vision of true zero by 2030, Fortescue is installing wind turbines with a blade length of 89 metres. Bigger than Godzilla! Have we got your attention now? The blades will be deployed at the Nullagine wind farm in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. They will arrive by boat to the Port Headland project site. Fortescue has made significant improvements to allow easy access to the blades and minimize the impact on local traffic. The community will also receive regular updates throughout the delivery program to keep residents informed.

For readers around the world, I would like to point out that Fortescue’s mining operations and properties in the Pilbara region of Western Australia cover more than 87,000 square kilometers (34,000 square miles). This is approximately the size of Austria (83,879 km²), Ireland (84,421 km²) or Serbia (88,361 km²), and more than twice the size of countries such as the Netherlands (41,850 km²) or Switzerland (41,285 km²). And for American readers, Fortescue’s holdings alone are larger than those of South Carolina, West Virginia, or Maryland, and about the same size as the entire state of Maine or Indiana. But only one-eighth the size of Texas.

You will have read about Twiggy Forrest’s achievements and vision for real zero mining operations here and here.
Fortescue is taking steps to educate the public about decarbonisation. It is necessary to take people with you, especially shareholders. Here is a great video produced by Fortescue to show how decode decarbonization. Godzilla-sized wind turbines are part of an ecosystem. They will provide power to recharge the electric dump trucks. But how do you reload a 240-ton dump truck in a timely manner? Of course, using 6MW robotic fast charging eliminates 26% of Fortescue’s emissions and saves money in the process.

Technical Cleaning reported on the acquisition of Williams Racing 5 years ago, so that Fortescue could access Williams’ fast charging technology. It’s taken some time, but it seems like everything is going well. I still have the image in my head, inspired by this acquisition, of huge dump trucks doing F1 races in the red dust of the Australian outback. Beyond Mad Max fantasies, even. While we indulge in mental gymnastics, Fortescue’s video tells us that 6 MW of load is like boiling 1,875 electric kettles at once. That’s a lot of tea or coffee! A charge of less than 30 minutes will give the truck 4 hours of operation. Loading equipment must be sturdy as the Pilbara is hot and dusty, with temperatures above 40 degrees in summer and below zero on winter nights.

Episode 2 answers the question “Can a green grid power a mining operation 24/7?” It’s a great question. Fortescue is the world’s fourth largest iron ore producer, exporting 200 million tonnes a year. The advantages: Fortescue saves costs, favors the climate and maintains control of your energy. In the current global situation, I would add energy security.

The Pilbara has 300 days a year of irradiation and Fortescue plans to take advantage of it with a planned 1.5 gigawatts of solar farms. Over time, this will be backed by 900 MW of wind and balanced by 5 GWh of battery storage – enough electricity to power 800,000 homes on solar alone. All of this is connected by a high-voltage green network consisting of 600 km of transmission lines. “A city-scale electrical system in the middle of nowhere.” The green operation is not powered by the public grid; Not in the distant future, but right now.

Fortescue is not just content to reduce emissions from its mining operations; It is also working on ecological steel, a product of the future. Fortescue reports that it has produced its first hot metal using an electric smelting process in a pilot project at Christmas Creek. Initially using a blended feedstock, as the commissioning process continues it is expected to be able to handle Pilbara iron ore. The goal is larger scale production. For now, the focus is on testing, refining and optimizing the process.

Fortescue Metals CEO Dino Otranto said: “This is a significant milestone for our Green Metal Project and another step towards commercial-scale green metal production in Australia.

“For decades, Australia has exported iron ore to the world. The next opportunity is to create more value from that mineral by producing green metal here at home.

“The real opportunity goes beyond the green metal – it is about building a new industrial economy around Australia’s renewable energy advantage.

“No one has yet solved green metal production using Pilbara ore on a commercial scale. That’s the challenge we’re taking on.”

I look forward to more good news about the progress towards true zero from Fortescue Metals. Have Technical Cleaning Did readers notice any other mining companies going down the same path? If so, please comment below. Even in the “hard to decarbonize” mining sector, electricity sourced from renewables and stored in batteries is the way forward to save costs, protect the climate and maintain control of energy inputs. In the Pilbara, Australia, the future is bright and electric.