The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced it has awarded a $10 million investment to mining company Fortescue to develop, build and demonstrate first of a kind chargers for heavy vehicle mine sites.
The ARENA grant will bolster a total fund of $35.3 million towards Fortescue’s ‘Fast Charger for Heavy Battery Electric Vehicles project, which will develop six MW fast chargers capable of charging 240 tonne battery electric trucks in under 30 minutes.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller says the project has the potential to change the face of the mining sector due to the immense percentage of emissions that are produced through heavy haulage.
“ARENA is working to reduce emissions from Australia’s heavy industry, with heavy haulage high on the priority list for the mining sector,” Miller says.
“Heavy haulage for remote mine sites contributes to around a quarter of the mining industry’s emissions and is considered a hard to abate sector, so we’re investing in technologies that will be part of the solution.
“If the fast charger can be successfully validated at the operational Christmas Creek mine site, we’d like to see the technology widely deployed across Australia’s resources industry.”
The funding has been allocated through the federal government’s Industrial Transformation Scheme, with Miller stating these are the types of challenges the scheme was created to address.
Overall, the scheme is a $400 million program that aims to support emissions reduction at existing industrial facilities in regional Australia.
Fortescue Zero CEO Ellie Coates says the chargers are well equipped for the unique challenges of operation in the Pilbara.
“These innovative chargers are designed to be a safe, rugged, high-power and scalable fast charging solution for multiple different vehicle applications,” Coates says.
“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.
“Equipped with robotic connection options, they will be able to power Fortescue’s future 240-tonne Liebherr T 264 battery electric trucks in just 30 minutes.”
Preliminary testing is underway, with the project due to be completed in late 2025.
The development of the MW chargers is the latest in a string of renewable and sustainable emissions practices implemented by Fortescue over the second half of 2024.
Recently it welcomed a hydrogen-powered Liebherr T264 haul truck dubbed ‘Europa’ that is undergoing site-based testing at the Christmas Creek site.
The mining giant also signed a US$2.8 billion zero-emission truck deal with Liebherr in September, and signed a memorandum of understanding to pursue greener shipping with Chinese shipping company COSCO in July.
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