Rio Tinto announced on Wednesday that it will purchase electricity from a newly built solar power plant in Queensland, aiming to green the energy of Australia's East Coast aluminum industry and halve its direct and indirect carbon emissions by 2030.
Rio Tinto stated that it has signed a 25 year agreement with green energy company European Energy Australia. The latter is planning to build an Upper Calliope solar power plant with an installed capacity of 1.1 gigawatts in Queensland.
After completion, the Upper Calliope power plant will become the largest solar power plant in Australia. Once the power plant is approved and completed for development, it has the potential to reduce Rio Tinto's annual carbon emissions by 1.8 million tons.
According to the Clean Energy Regulatory Agency, Rio Tinto is the tenth largest carbon emitter in Australia. In 2022, Rio Tinto Group reported direct and indirect carbon dioxide emissions of 30.3 million tons, of which approximately two-thirds came from Rio Tinto's aluminum sector.
Under the leadership of former CEO Jean S é bastien Jacques, Rio Tinto has been attempting to sell this aging department for many years in the past decade before considering closing it down.
The Upper Calliope photovoltaic power plant is planned to start construction in 2025 or 2026 and will be located approximately 50 kilometers southwest of Gladstone, a port city in southeastern Queensland, Australia.
Rio Tinto stated in a statement that the power purchase transaction is expected to provide new power supply channels for the company's three production assets in Gladstone, namely: the Boyn Aluminum Smelter, the Yavin Alumina Refinery, and the Queensland Alumina Refinery.
This mining giant sought advice in June 2022 to develop wind and solar power plants in Queensland, Australia, in order to provide electricity for its three aluminum projects by 2030.
The company stated that the Upper Calliope solar power plant was Rio Tinto's first successful bid for proposals for renewable energy and fixed projects in central and southern Queensland.