BHP nickel refinery to reduce emissions
BHP has signed a renewable power purchasing agreement to supply up to 50% of its electricity needs at the Kwinana Refinery from Merredin Solar Farm, the largest in Western Australia. The agreement will help BHP reduce emissions from electricity use at the refinery by up to 50% by 2024, based on FY2020 levels.
The agreement with Risen Energy is for ten years from 1 February 2021. This will effectively displace an estimated 364,000 tonnes of CO2e over the life of the contract. This is the equivalent of removing 11,200 combustion engine cars from WA’s roads every year.
This is the first renewable energy PPA signed by BHP in Western Australia and follows renewable agreements covering BHP’s operations in Queensland in 2020 and in Chile in 2019. The contract will contribute to BHP’s medium-term, science-based target to reduce scope 1 and 2 emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.
The 132 MW Merredin Solar Farm is made up of 354,452 solar panels and is West Australia’s largest completed solar farm. It has an output of 274GWh of electricity annually. This is enough green energy to power approximately 42,000 Western Australian homes.
