Fortescue makes green land grab over plots twice the size of Singapore
Fortescue has put its foot on 150,000 hectares of land near its iron ore mines – to be used for renewable energy projects – just days after quietly scrapping plans for a multi-billion dollar wind and solar farm hub that had been central to its decarbonisation plans.
The Andrew Forrest-chaired group applied for scores of miscellaneous tenements that in total cover an area twice the size of Singapore on October 27, shortly after terminating plans for the Uaroo Renewable Energy Hub.
The vast tenement package is in Western Australia’s resources-rich Pilbara and is largely covered by broad land use agreements between Fortescue and traditional owners. The Alinta Energy business in the Pilbara, recently acquired by APA Group for more than $1.7 billion, also grew its tenement package as Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortescue move to reduce emissions.
Andrew Forrest is executive chairman of Fortescue. He has radical plans to decarbonise its iron ore operations. Bloomberg
Fortescue estimates it will need between two and three gigawatts of renewable energy and battery storage to hit a 2030 target to stop using fossil fuels in its mining operations. The company said it had not settled on a plan to reach the target and declined to estimate the land footprint required.
“We continuously review and optimise the best way to achieve this objective (decarbonisation by 2030),” a Fortescue spokesman said. “This optimisation includes both the best mix of technologies, including wind and solar, as well as the best geographical areas to install these technologies.”
“As part of this ongoing optimisation, we have identified multiple areas east of our Iron Bridge operation that are potentially suitable to support our decarbonisation plans,” she added.
The
Read more on afr.com
