Soluna Australia, the energy storage division of Lithium Australia, has executed a Letter of Intent with Northern Minerals to supply the latter’s heavy rare earths mine at Browns Range in Western Australia with a renewable energy system including battery storage.
Currently, the mining project depends on expensive and polluting, off-grid diesel generation to power its processing plant and accommodation camp.
Soluna will install a 100 kW solar photovoltaic power generator and a 200kWh energy storage system in the form of lithium-ion battery packs. Though Northern Minerals will not incur any upfront capital cost, it will enter a power purchase agreement with Soluna.
Initially, Soluna will shift the mine’s accommodation camp to a renewable energy supply. However, the long-term goal is to reduce the use of fossil fuels across the entire operation.
The arrangement will allow Soluna to install and test its modular, rack-mounted energy storage system (ESS). The company intends to adopt this format of no-cost ESS installation in combination with a power purchase agreement for future sales.
“Lithium Australia is aware of the growing demand for off-grid and fringe-of-grid hybrid energy systems,” said the company’s managing director, Adrian Griffin. “Renewable energy won’t work without reliable storage and Soluna offers economical and sustainable solutions.
Read the ONE STEP OFF THE GRID article HERE.
Image Source of its Browns Range Project: Northern Minerals