Westgold Resources has announced the successful commissioning and commencement of its new 17.9MW facility at Tuckabianna, the first of four new hybrid power facilities across its Western Australian operations.
Located 20km east of Cue, the facility replaces the existing diesel fired power station delivering a reduction of approximately 15kt of CO² equivalent emissions and ten million litres of annual diesel fuel consumption.
Westgold Chair, Cheryl Edwardes, and Managing Director, Wayne Bramwell, joined staff, business partners, local stakeholders and Traditional Owners onsite to open the Tuckabianna Hybrid Power Facility.
Mr Bramwell said that Westgold continues to innovate to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and drive its operating costs down.
“This new hybrid power facility at Tuckabianna incorporates renewable energy and is a great first step along this journey, with power generated from these facilities energising our mines and processing hubs for decades to come,” Mr Bramwell said.
“The successful commissioning of Tuckabianna is a testament to the tireless work of Westgold’s project and operational teams, business partners at Pacific Energy and CEFA and construction crews who have delivered our first power station safely and on schedule.”
The Tuckabianna Hybrid Power facility incorporates:
- A 6MW solar farm fitted with 11,088 photovoltaic panels
- A battery energy storage system with 2.4MW installed capacity
- A 9.5MW gas-fuelled power station
In addition to the now operational Tuckabianna facility, a further three new hybrid power facilities are being constructed at Bluebird, Fortnum and Big Bell. With a combined installed capacity of 82MW, all facilities are expected to be online and powering Westgold’s operations by Q3 2023-24. These facilities are expected to reduce Westgold’s annual diesel fuel consumption by 38 million litres and lower annual CO² equivalent emissions by approximately 57,000t.
Westgold expects its All-In Sustaining Cost to reduce by approximately $60/oz due to lower cost energy being provided by these new hybrid power facilities.
The new facilities are central to Westgold’s Clean Energy Transition initiative, with the gas-fired power stations, battery storage and solar farms owned and operated by Pacific Energy under an Electricity Purchase Agreement, and the LNG provided by Clean Energy Fuels Australia (CEFA) under an LNG supply agreement.
Featured image: The Tuckiabanna solar farm. Image credit: Westgold Resources.
