Australian energy firm APA Group has opened a solar farm and battery storage facility at Western Australia's Port Hedland in a move designed to support mineral giant BHP's emissions-reduction goals.
APA's plant will power most of BHP's Port Hedland operations from January 2025, under the terms of a power purchase agreement signed between the two firms. Work on the project began last year, supported by a A$1.5mn ($970,000) grant from Western Australia's Clean Energy Future Fund.
BHP is planning to reduce its operational greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30pc from 2020 levels within the next six years, without using carbon credit schemes. In the 2023-24 financial year, the company's operational GHG emissions were 32pc lower than 2020 levels at 9.2mn t of CO2 equivalent, despite increasing 2pc on the year.
BHP exports Western Australian iron ore through Port Hedland. Shipping data indicates that the company loaded an average of 5.94mn dwt/week of ore over the last three months. Argus' iron ore fines 65pc Fe cfr Qingdao price was relatively stable over that period, growing from $113/t to $117/t.
The Port Hedland opening comes just weeks after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government updated Australia's national emissions projection to forecast a 65.7pc baseline drop in electricity emissions, relative to 2020 levels, by the end of the decade. The government was forecasting a more modest 53pc decline in electricity emissions last year.
