{"id":653264,"date":"2026-06-23T02:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T02:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/653264\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T02:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T02:44:11","slug":"off-grid-mine-goes-155-consecutive-hours-on-100-renewable-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/653264\/","title":{"rendered":"Off-grid mine goes 155 consecutive hours on 100% renewable energy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Australian miner Bellevue Gold has\u00a0hit a sustainability milestone at its namesake gold mine in remote Western Australia, achieving 155 consecutive hours of \u201cengine-off\u201d operations with the facility running entirely on renewable energy courtesy of a 90 MW off-grid hybrid power station.<\/p>\n<p>The microgrid, owned and operated by Perth-based remote power specialist <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pv-magazine-australia.com\/2025\/12\/03\/zenith-reaches-agreement-for-gold-mine-renewables\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Zenith Energy<\/a>, integrates 27 MW of solar, 24 MW of wind and a 15 MW \/ 30 MWh battery energy storage system. It also includes 24 MW of thermal generation that serves as back-up.<\/p>\n<p>Zenith said the off-grid system allowed the Bellevue site, near Leinster is Western Australia\u2019s northern Goldfields region, to last month to operate for six-and-a-half consecutive days on 100% renewable power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a significant milestone, not only for the project, but for what is possible in the Australian energy sector and demonstrating nation-leading progress in renewable energy for remote mining operations,\u201d Zenith said in a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/zenithenergy_zenithenergy-bellevuegold-renewableenergy-activity-7468501856218939392-yOQ2?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAAAx0XhoBo2EEpXutEPrHJwx1HLpM0xkU2x8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">LinkedIn post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Originally designed to meet at least 80% of the 24-hour underground mining operation\u2019s energy needs with renewables, the system also allows the gold mine to operate on 100% renewable energy and switch to an \u201cengine-off\u201d mode during periods of high renewable energy generation. <\/p>\n<p>The system works because solar supplies strong daytime output, wind complements evenings and shoulder periods, and the battery smooths variability and carries short peaks in demand. That combination allows engines to switch off for extended periods while maintaining stable power for the processing plant and underground operations. The site is forecast to average 80\u201390% renewable penetration over a typical year, subject to weather and mine demand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoments like this show what that looks like in practice, especially with the right weather conditions,\u201d Zenith said.<\/p>\n<p>For Bellevue, the energy solution supports its ambition to become Australia\u2019s first net zero (Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions) gold producer. Bellevue\u2019s ultimate goal is to produce \u201ccarbon-neutral gold,\u201d which it believes will give it a \u201cmajor competitive advantage in global investment markets.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve put out a strategy that\u2019s ahead of the market that will have us producing net zero carbon gold by 2026 and we couldn\u2019t do it without renewable energy as a core part,\u201d\u00a0Bellevue\u00a0Gold\u2019s managing director Darren Stralow said. \u201c(It\u2019s)\u00a0a significant milestone, not only for the project, but for what is possible in the Australian energy sector.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian miner Bellevue Gold has\u00a0hit a sustainability milestone at its namesake gold mine in remote Western Australia, achieving&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653265,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[13254,1397,90,56,54,55,219598],"class_list":["post-653264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-batteries","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-utility-scale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653264\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}