From July this year, GMA’s mining and processing operations in Port Gregory, Western Australia will be mainly powered by wind and solar energy.

Approximately 70% of our plant’s annual energy consumption will be generated by a 2.5MW wind farm and 1.1MW solar farm with a 2MW / 0.6MWh battery. The hybrid plant was developed by Australian based Advanced Energy Resources (AER), a renewable energy developer, generator and electricity retailer. 

According to GMA Chief Financial Officer Grant Cox, the improved power quality will prevent brownouts while maintaining uninterrupted power to our plant during a network supply outage when the renewable generation conditions allow. 

“Besides the economic benefits of reducing energy costs by 40% to 50% over the life of the project, we will be able to lower our carbon emissions by 100,000 tonnes over the life of the 15-year power purchase agreement with AER,” Grant said. 

“Now that the project is online, we are looking to take the learnings from this project to look at renewable opportunities for our other global locations being mines, processing plants, warehouses and offices. All have the potential to reduce our carbon footprint and save costs”.

The Group is working towards running our Port Gregory operations using 100% renewable energy and in the longer-term, exploring opportunities in electrification and automation of the vehicle fleet to further reduce emissions and operating costs.

  By Stephanie Cheong, GMA Group