Rio Tinto said the new solar power plant will feature more than 6,600 bifacial PV panels. They will generate energy from direct sunlight and from the light that reflects off the snow. It is expected the facility will generate approximately 4.2 GWh of clean energy per year, or up to 25% of Diavik’s power needs.
Diavik Diamond Mine President and Chief Operating Officer Angela Bigg said the solar plant will significantly expand the operation’s existing renewable energy generation, which already features a wind-diesel hybrid power facility that has a capacity of 55.4 MW.
“We will be significantly increasing our renewable power generation with the largest solar power plant in Canada’s northern territories,” she said. “The combination of solar and wind power will work well together as solar is more predictable than wind, but wind can generate power at all times of the day. Having both will provide more consistent renewable generation.”
Rio Tinto, which is targeting net zero emissions across its global operations by 2050, expects the solar plant to reduce diesel consumption at the Diavik site by approximately 1 million liters per year and reduce carbon emissions by 2,900 tons.
Construction of the solar plant is expected to start in the coming weeks, with the facility scheduled to be fully operational in the first half of 2024. The project is supported by more than CAD 3.6 million ($2.7 million) in funding from the Canadian government.
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It’s not that it makes no sense, it’s that they keep building them. The temperature up there will go to -40C occasionally colder, and with howling wind, fines, ice and snow. Circuit boards crack, plastic becomes as brittle as pastry, lithium batteries grow dendrites and won’t hold a charge – worse case will develop internal faults that lead to thermal runaway. As a shareholder of this and other companies building wind turbines in migratory bird flight-ways and whale calving grounds, solar panels over prairie grassland and arable farmland I understand it caters to the urban environmental lobby and NGOs run by rich people’s kids, and so it goes. As someone who worked outdoors most of his life and appreciates nature, I’m very sorry about the solar and wind garbage we are littering the planet with. We can now do net zero natural gas generation by sequestering the supercritical CO2 in underground caverns (the same ones we took the oil from) such an installation of 15 acres produces the same power as 3000 acres of solar panels, but 24 hrs 365 days a year. The sun will literally not rise on the mine in this article for the darkest months of the year, and produce too much power for storage in the midnight sun. I understand the politics of it but don’t tell me it’s science and don’t tell me it’s better for the environment.