<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/forrest-lands-wind-solar-and-battery-supply-deals-as-fortescue-pushes-to-real-zero/>
"Iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest has announced supply deals for wind
turbines, solar panels and battery storage as his company Fortescue Metals
ramps up plans to reach “real zero” emissions at their giant operations in the
Pilbara.
Forrest announced from New York, where he is attending NY climate week and the
UN General Assembly, that partnerships have been struck with battery giant BYD,
solar module supplier Longi, and wind and smart energy solutions company
Envision.
Fortescue has also taken full ownership of Spanish company Nabrawind, which is
developing an innovative “self-lifting” turbine design that the company plans
to use at its first large scale wind project.
The Nabrawind self-lifting technology will be integrated with Envision’s 7.2 MW
turbines and rolled out for the first 132 megawatt (MW) stage of the giant 2.1
gigawatt (GW) East Pilbara generation hub near Marble Bar that was unveiled
earlier this year.
The announcement continues a week of extraordinary scenes at the UN, where US
president Donald Trump branded climate science as a giant hoax and said wind
energy doesn’t work because the wind “doesn’t blow”.
The next day China president Xi Jinping announced his country’s first emissions
reduction target, and a goal of reaching a staging 3,600 gigawatts of wind and
solar by 2035 – which even analysts said was underselling the rate of
installations in China.
“The world once benefited from open trade and cooperation – now it is divided,”
Forrest said in a statement.
“Fortescue is showing that industry can help glue back that multilateral
spirit, not through rhetoric but through practical alliances that prove heavy
industry can follow a new path – one where profits rise as emissions fall.
“China is scaling and manufacturing green technologies at unprecedented speed
and our partnerships give Fortescue access to that capability.”
Fortescue’s plans for “real zero” are the most ambitious in the world, as they
assume the company will not burn any diesel or gas for its terrestrial
operations at the giant iron ore mines.
Even if it gets close to the target, it will be a major achievement given the
scale of its operations in the Pilbara.
But other mining groups are also active: Rio Tinto has made it clear that its
giant smelter and refineries in Queensland have no future if they have to rely
on coal generation, and has signed a series of landmark deals for giant wind,
solar and solar-battery hybrid projects."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
