Posted by Paul Moore on thirteenth November 2024
Rio Tinto has accredited development of a brand new 25MW photo voltaic plant at its Kennecott copper operation in Utah, bringing the mine’s whole photo voltaic capability to 30MW.
The brand new photo voltaic plant shall be positioned subsequent to Kennecott’s present 5MW photo voltaic plant, which was accomplished in 2023. Collectively, the 2 photo voltaic vegetation will scale back Kennecott’s Scope 2 emissions by roughly 6%, or 21,000 tons of carbon dioxide equal per yr. That is equal to eradicating round 5,000 petroleum-powered passenger vehicles from the highway.
Building of the 25MW photo voltaic plant is predicted to be accomplished subsequent yr and create short-term employment alternatives for as much as 100 labourers, in addition to a small variety of long-term operations and upkeep roles. Bechtel Company will design and handle development of the plant.
Kennecott, which already has one of many lowest carbon footprints of any copper producer within the US, has lowered its carbon footprint greater than 80% since 2018 by means of initiatives reminiscent of closing its coal-powered energy plant, constructing a 5MW photo voltaic farm, transitioning the mining fleet to renewable diesel, and utilizing battery electrical automobiles in underground mining.
Rio Tinto Kennecott Managing Director Nate Foster mentioned: “Increasing our photo voltaic farm is the most recent step in our journey to scale back our carbon footprint. Along with different measures we’ve taken, reminiscent of closing a coal-fired energy plant, deploying battery electrical automobiles underground, and our current transition to renewable diesel, we’ve lowered our emissions by hundreds of thousands of tons over the previous few years.”
He provides: “We’re demonstrating day-after-day that sustainable practices and useful resource manufacturing can go hand-in-hand to learn our firm in addition to our group.” The 210-acre photo voltaic array will embrace greater than 71,000 panels, which include tellurium produced by Kennecott, a byproduct of mining and refining copper. In 2022, Kennecott grew to become one in all solely two US producers of this vital mineral. Each copper and tellurium are very important parts of photovoltaic photo voltaic panels.
