Wind Energy And Battery Storage To Combine For Baseload Supply To BHP In Australia

• French EPC major Neoen, which has been active in Australia with big battery and renewables contracts, has opted for a combination of wind and big battery for the first time to give baseload powr.
• The baseload contract has actually been signed with mining huge BHP for its Ausralian mines

Baseload power, the last hurdle for renewable energy, specifically wind and solar, looks set to face its very first assault from renewables. French renewable resource designer Neoen, which has actually been entailed with multiple big battery and renewable projects in Australia, has actually signed a first of its kind "baseload" contract with mining initially BHP to provide power to its Olympic Dam copper mine in South Australia with a combination of wind and battery storage.

The step comes also as mining titans globally seek to reduce their exhausts impact by sourcing ever higher renewable resource for their operations. BHP has comitted to reduce it's exhausts from procedures by 30 percemt by 2030.

The 70MW contract will provide energy 24/7 to run mining operations. While the wind power will come from the first 412MW stage of the Goyder South wind farm, sustaining it will certainly be the 300MW big battery at Blyth, likewise in South Australia, prepared for upto 800MWh of storage.

Planned to start from 2025, the contract is expected to meet half of the power needs at the mine. Neoen hopes that the company hopes this will become a blueprint for future contracts. Neoen expects that the Goyder South area will ultimately become the biggest renewables hybrid facility in Australia, with as much as 1200MW of wind, 600MW of solar, and 900MW and 1800MWh of battery storage.

For Neoen, which was behind the pioneering Tesla big battery, (Hornsdale Power Reserve)in South Australia, and the Victoria Big Battery, which at 300MW/450MWh continues to be the biggest in the nation.

It is presently Australia's largest solar farm, the 400MW Western Downs project in Queensland, as well as the 157MW Kaban wind farm in the north of that state.