A $950 million green energy project has been backed by Fortescue’s board to satiate the miner’s needs and deliver power for local industries such as data centres.
A $950 million green energy project has been backed by Fortescue’s board to satiate the miner’s needs and deliver power for local industries such as data centres.
Fortescue on Friday morning revealed plans for a US$680m, 200-megawatt power plant backed by battery storage dubbed the Pilbara Green Energy Project.
The project is in addition to Fortescue’s existing under construction and proposed power generation plans and could be scaled up to gigawatt capacity in the future.
That brings to three the number of gigawatt scale proposals on Fortescue’s books, the others being the 2.1GW Bonney Downs and East Pilbara Generation Hub projects.
Fortescue executive chairman Andrew Forrest said the project would provide a pathway for new industries in the Pilbara to operate without fossil fuels.
“Fortescue is already demonstrating in the Pilbara that heavy industry can operate on a fully integrated renewable grid – eliminating fossil fuels while improving cost, reliability and control,” he said.
“We are now extending this model to new customers, particularly data centres, helping meet one of the fastest growing sources of demand in the world.
“This is about replicating our decarbonisation green grid, delivering new green electrons at a scale and speed to market not able to be replicated by fossil fuel.”
Fortescue is already on track to deliver 1.8GW of green power by 2028, backed by up to five gigawatt-hours of batter storage and more than 600km of transmission lines.
The miner is trialling autonomous installation for its solar panels and self-erecting technology for its wind turbines to reduce the cost of green energy construction.
Northern data
The Pilbara is currently home to a 1.5MW data centre, built by NextDC in partnership with BHP, Microsoft and Vocus, and another 1.5MW centre in Newman.
Vocus’ Project Horizon fibre cable was critical to NextDC’s decision to build.
Positioning of data centres closer to mining operations has been touted as crucial to the uptake of automation and advanced AI, as it enables software to make and relay decisions to mining operations faster.
Renewable energy play Gingerah Energy in 2024 revealed plans for a 240MW data centre between Port Hedland and Broome dubbed Project Meridien, to be powered by its own proposed green energy hub.
That project is yet to be submitted to regulators.
Its backers which include the Karajarri traditional owners hope to be building the centre in 2029.
Quarterly update
Back with Fortescue, the miner shipped 48.4 million tonnes of ore from Port Hedland in the March quarter.
Production costs came in at US$18.29/tonne, four per cent lower than this time last year.
Fortescue attracted an average price of US$92/tonne in the quarter, and US$122/t for its Iron Bridge magnetite.
The company reported US$4.2 billion the bank and a debt of US$1.6bn.
Fortescue metals and operations chief executive Dino Otranto said the miner delivered record shipments in the nine months to March.
“That reflects a significant effort from the team right across the business,” he said.
“At the same time, we’re getting on with decarbonising our operations and we’re already seeing the benefits.
“Given volatility in global energy markets, there’s never been a clearer reason why this matters.”
Mr Otranto said Fortescue’s green iron commercial pilot plant at Christmas Creek would produce its first metal this financial year.
