The Federal Government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will offer up millions to Fortescue for the development of world-first technology.
Fortescue will use the $10 million grant as part of a larger $35.3 million project to develop, build and demonstrate first-of-a-kind six-megawatt fast chargers for electric heavy mine site vehicles.
The fast charger will be compatible with a wide range of equipment and capable of charging 240 tonne trucks in under 30 minutes.
“As part of our decarbonisation plan, we intend to roll out around 250 fast chargers of varying capacities across our iron ore operations before the end of this decade,” Fortescue Metals chief executive officer Dino Otranto said.
“Not only will this project serve as a catalyst for demand from external heavy industry customers, but it will also enable a significant reduction in emissions.”
The funding has been awarded under the Australian Government’s Industrial Transformation Stream, part of the Powering the Regions Fund.
The $400 million program aims to support emissions reduction at existing industrial facilities in regional Australia.
haul truck prototype. Image: Fortescue
Australian iron ore mining produces roughly five million tonnes of CO2 each year due to fleet diesel consumption. Pathways to decarbonising mine operations are currently limited by a lack of commercially available solutions on the market.
ARENA chief executive officer Darren Miller said the project would help reduce emissions in one of Australia’s most carbon intensive industries.
“ARENA is working to reduce emissions from Australia’s heavy industry, with heavy haulage high on the priority list for the mining sector,” Miller said.
“Heavy haulage for remote mine sites contributes around a quarter of the mining industry’s emission and is considered a hard to abate sector, so we’re investing in the technologies that will be part of the solution.”
The project is being driven by Fortescue Zero and will see the chargers developed and tested at the company’s research and development facility in Perth before being shipped out to Fortescue’s Hazelmere and Christmas Creek mine sites in Western Australia.
Fortescue Zero chief executive officer Ellie Coates said the chargers will be developed with global charging system standardisation in mind.
“Leveraging our world-class capability in battery and charging solutions from motorsport, the fast chargers have been developed for the challenging conditions of the Pilbara,” Coates said.
“These innovative chargers are designed to be a safe, rugged, high power and scalable fast charging solution for multiple different vehicle applications.”
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