Mining companies like Dr Gina Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting have been major backers of renewable skepticism in Australian politics. But while they’re happy to sell the coal and gas, they’re investing in renewable generation for themselves.
Rinehart is the major shareholder in the Kathleen Valley lithium mine. The mine is located way off in the red desert of WA.
As the site is off the electricity grid, the operator built an on-site power station driven by wind turbines, solar, and a gas and diesel generator. Renewables produced 81% of the electricity the site used in 2025.
Meanwhile Fortescue Metals is investing heavily in renewables on the west coast. Twiggy Forrest says the company will not be using any hydrocarbon fuels by 2030. This includes the massive, remote iron mines of the Pilbara.
The company is purchasing hundreds of gigantic 200-tonne electric trucks for its mine sites. And it is aiming big with its on-site renewable energy plants.
Fortescue is planning a 2.1GW renewable energy hub to power its northwest operations (this, for reference, is roughly 20% of the total installed generation capacity of Victoria). It includes 1.3GW of solar power capacity under construction, equivalent to a large coal-powered station.
Building at this scale in remote locations requires novel methods. Fortescue recently completed its take-over of Spanish wind energy company Nabrawind, investor of the so-called self-assembling wind turbine.
What it means is that the tower is essentially assembled “top-down”. Once the turbine is in place, hydraulics at the base raise the tower 10 to 15 metres at a time. A new portion of the tower is fixed in place underneath and the process repeats.
This allows the blades to be attached much closer to the ground. In turn this means smaller cranes can be used, which reduces the cost of assembly on these remote sites.
Renewables have been a political football for decades now. But it’s engineering and economics that have settled the argument.
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