Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) said Tuesday it agreed to buy all electricity generated from Australia’s largest solar farm for 25 years, in a bid to provide renewable power to the miner’s Gladstone operations as it seeks to cut in half its global Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions this decade.
Under the new power purchase agreement signed with project developer European Energy, Rio Tinto (RIO) said it will buy all power generated from the Upper Calliope solar farm, which will will have the potential to cut down the company’s operating carbon emissions by 1.8M metric tons/year.
Once approved and developed, Upper Calliope is seen helping power Rio’s (RIO) three Gladstone production assets: the Boyne aluminum smelter, the Yarwun alumina refinery, and the Queensland alumina refinery.
Construction of the Upper Calliope plant is targeted to start in 2025 or 2026 and will be built at a site ~50 km southwest of Gladstone.