French developer Neoen has in place a 24/7 “baseload renewable” energy supply contract with mining company BHP for its Olympic Dam mine in South Australia.
Neoen is one of the world’s leading producers of exclusively renewable energy. BHP’s Olympic Dam site in South Australia is one of the world’s most significant deposits of copper, gold and uranium.
The deal, for an uninterrupted supply of 70 MW around the clock, will be met by two projects: Neoen’s 412 MW Goyder South complex wind energy project in South Australia, of which around one half will be earmarked to the BHP contract, and the 200 MW two-hour Blyth battery in the same state, which will fill in the gaps.
Jean-Christophe Cheylus, Neoen’s head of energy, explained the mechanism to Renew Economy founder and editor Giles Parkinson.
“The baseload is a constant demand, we must provide all the time whatever the wind generation. But we do not use the battery to store excess wind generation and restitute it later, we use the market instead.”
“So, when generation and battery discharge exceeds the base load demand, the excess energy is sold to the market. And when the wind generation plus battery discharge is below the baseload demand, the missing energy is bought on the market.”
“Now, when prices are low, the battery will charge and when prices are high, the battery will discharge.”
Source: RENEW ECONOMY
Image Source: General Electric