Fortescue’s Uaroo green energy hub shelved

Fortescue’s multi-billion-dollar renewable energy hub in the Pilbara has been shelved as the miner insists it will meet bold decarbonisation targets by 2030.

Under the proposal, a solar farm and 340 wind turbines would be built on the Andrew Forrest-owned Uaroo and Emu Creek stations near Onslow.

That project would have produced up to 5.4 gigawatts of power to decarbonise Fortescue’s Eliwana mining hub, 220 kilometres inland.

But in an Environmental Protection Authority note published in the past few days it was revealed Fortescue had terminated its application.

A Fortescue spokesperson said Uaroo was still part of the company's project pipeline.

"We anticipate that we will need two to three gigawatts of renewable energy and battery storage as part of our plan to eliminate fossil fuels from our Australian iron ore operations," he said.

"The precise mix of wind and solar is still open and will depend on commercial and approval developments.

"Feasibility studies are under way for proposed wind and solar generation sites.

"In FY23, we continued to work with community stakeholders for approval pathways for these projects and anticipate they will be ready for final investment decision progressively over FY24, FY25 and FY26."

Separate to Uaroo, Fortescue is building a 100-megawatt near Iron Bridge, which is expected to come online in early 2025. 

That plant, named North Star Junction, will provide up to 30 per cent of Fortescue's daytime stationary energy needs, according to the company.

Fortescue Energy chief executive Mark Hutchinson last week told a global energy forum in Perth the miner was intentionally setting unreasonable green targets to drive climate innovation.

“Something I’ve learned since coming here is if you tell people to do [something], they don’t think about what’s not possible, they just go ahead and do it,” he said.

“We sent them the impossible task of doing this, and within a year, they’ve come up with these ideas.

“I think what we’re finding is that by setting unreasonable kinds of targets, and using the technology which is available today, we have a very, very clear plan of how we’re going to decarbonise the business by 2030.”

The miner has said it would stop using diesel in 2030, has allocated $6.2 billion to help achieve this goal, and would shut down mines should it fail to deliver.

Decisions on several highly-touted Fortescue hydrogen projects are expected to be revealed by the end of the year.

On an October tour of Fortescue’s Christmas Creek operations, Fortescue Metals chief executive Dino Otranto said the company, spurred by Mr Forrest’s vision, had no choice but to achieve real zero emissions reductions.

Among efforts to reach this goal are a new hydrogen refueling station at Christmas Creek to power buses, and the launch of a battery-powered haul truck, the first of 120 ordered, which will replace one third of the miner’s fleet.