Yeah, Degrussa was such a failure everyone's doing it now...
" Since the commissioning of Degrussa, the use of a mix of solar, batteries and even wind power is becoming standard fare at remote mine sites, as the resources industry seeks to cut emissions and costs, and as the renewables industry hones its skills.
EDL’s microgrid at the Agnew gold mine in Western Australia’s northern Goldfields region, commissioned in 2021, combines five wind turbines (for a total of 18MW), a 4MW solar farm and a 13MW/4MWh battery energy storage system to provide an average of between 50-60 per cent of renewables for that mine.
At the other end of the scale, Zenith Energy is building a 95MW hybrid power station to power the Kathleen Valley lithium mine in what is being described as the largest off-grid wind-solar battery storage power station for a mining operation in Australia.
That project will combine 30MW of wind from five 6MW turbines, 16MW of solar PV and a 17MW/19MWh battery energy storage system, as well as synchronous condensers to provide critical system stability and resilience.
There will also be 27MW of gas generation and 5MW of diesel standby capacity, but the renewables are expected to be able to run in “engine off” mode for significant periods of time.
