{"id":786962,"date":"2026-07-08T12:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/786962\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T12:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T12:46:10","slug":"renewables-head-off-grid-but-wind-farms-last-longer-than-many-mines-and-thats-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/786962\/","title":{"rendered":"Renewables head off grid, but wind farms last longer than many mines, and that’s a problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Western Australian mines are breaking records<\/a> as onsite renewables and batteries crowd out fossil fuels, but for wind developers they aren\u2019t always the best solution because mine lives often don\u2019t match up with project needs.<\/p>\n

The state is creeping up the list<\/a> of investors\u2019 preferred renewables locations in Australia thanks to its uber-quick approvals processes, but the small market means big energy developers are eyeing the mining industry for demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWestern Australia is fantastic in many respects. A lot of that is around the ability to develop large scale resource projects and have large scale load requirements,\u201d says Sam Pearce, chief of super fund-owned, Perth-HQ\u2019d Collgar Renewables.<\/p>\n

\u201c[However] most resource developments will have a mine life issue that may not match what\u2019s required for an offtake for a large-scale wind project to have enough tenor in it, to get an appropriate debt structure and appropriate capital structure.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reserves that are available for the mine to develop really set the length of time that a customer is willing to commit to.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat then really sets the challenge for us as a developer of a project to try and find a product that can match into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the only mismatch between what mine owners need and what renewable energy projects can offer, he told the Australia Wind Energy conference in Melbourne this week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The miners that are breaking the records, Liontown Resources, Bellevue Gold and Lynas Gold, with Fortescue looking to follow with several solar and wind projects<\/a> under construction, have all built onsite generators to replace diesel and gas.<\/p>\n

Bellevue in particular said in June that its remote gold mine, which has an average load of around 12.5 megawatts (MW), completed 155 consecutive hours running entirely on renewables, and with \u201cengines off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Its average renewable share is well above the 80 per cent it targeted, often reaching into the 90 pct range on a monthly basis, and an average 93.8 per cent over February.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that level of reliability that large loads in Western Australia\u2019s mining sector are looking for from their electricity arrangements, Pearce says.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome big smelters\u2026 their cost of energy pales in comparison to the loss of revenue that might come from a large gold mine, for example, shutting down for 12 hours because they didn\u2019t have the battery charged up appropriately,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysical firming becomes really important to them in that circumstance, and that then leads to [the question of], if we\u2019re going to have to pay for onsite generation, why are we paying for generation from elsewhere as well?\u201d<\/p>\n

Western Australia is closing its last coal power stations by 2030, which adds to the \u201cwhirlpool of issues\u201d in the state that developers and miners are trying to work around \u2013 not least an unsophisticated energy finance market.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pearce says financial derivatives, which long-term corporate electricity buyer Telstra uses to hedge its energy risk, \u201cis not evident at all in the WEM.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a physical market. There\u2019s really no financial overlay on it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere isn\u2019t much by way of financial derivatives sitting over the top of the bilateral type of arrangements, which tend to dominate the West Australian market, so that\u2019s an area that I think would really be worthwhile exploring.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you would like to join more than 29,000 others and get the latest clean energy news delivered straight to your inbox, for free, you can\u00a0click here to subscribe to our free daily newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you wish to support independent media, and accurate information, please consider making a one off donation or becoming a regular supporter of Renew Economy. Please click here. Your support is invaluable.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Western Australian mines are breaking records as onsite renewables and batteries crowd out fossil fuels, but for wind…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128,3439],"class_list":["post-786962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-western-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}