An innovative renewable energy project at the Tropicana gold mine in Western Australia is leading the charge towards a more sustainable mining sector.
Australia’s resources industry is both a key enabler of the transition to renewable energy, as well as one of the most difficult to abate sectors.
This industry works primarily in remote, off-grid locations, and for more than four decades many of these sites have relied on Pacific Energy to power their operations with reliable, self-contained solutions.
To meet its decarbonisation goals, this sector urgently needs future-ready clean energy technologies, but Pacific Energy realised that the location and harsh conditions of these sites calls for an innovative approach to not just technology, but project delivery too.
Reliable, renewable resources
Ever since the gold rushes of the 1850s transformed Australia forever, mining has remained the enduring pillar of our economy.
According to the Department of Industry, Science and Resources, Australia’s mining sector today makes up two-thirds of the country’s exports, contributing to 11.4 per cent of the country’s total GDP in 2024–25 and directly employing more than 300,000 people. The sector is also the key to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.
The production of renewable energy technologies is dependent on critical minerals like cobalt, lithium and manganese, and demand for these minerals is only going to increase as Australia and the rest of the world ramps up their energy transitions. Securing a reliable supply of these minerals is key to meeting the 2050 deadline. But, as the leading producer of lithium and the fourth-largest mining country in the world, Australia also has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to diversify and grow its resources sector.
Refining these critical minerals onshore, instead of exporting them overseas also presents a significant commercial opportunity for Australia – and the country’s natural abundance of solar and wind resources means it also has the potential to be a global leader in the research and development of new clean energy technologies.
However, without a sustainable supply chain, the resulting extra emissions from both the mining and manufacturing sectors could derail climate targets. Electricity generation accounted for 34 per cent of Australia’s total emissions in 2024 – and around 12 per cent of the country’s total primary energy consumption comes from the mining sector. This, coupled with the rising cost of energy presents an urgent need for the sector to find a renewable, reliable and affordable way to power its operations.
With growing demand for critical minerals, the sector can’t afford to shut sites down while new power solutions are implemented – but it also can’t afford to wait. According to Pacific Energy R&D Lead, Kem Mustafa, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to renewable energy.
“Every project has specific needs and faces its own operational challenges, stakeholder expectations, and risk profile,” he said.
“Globally, the harsh environment of remote Australia is often underestimated. Many vendors have learned this the hard way, with equipment that meets European standards but struggles in Australia’s demanding conditions.”
Mr Mustafa explained that as energy systems become more complex, the more the team saw the limitations of a fragmented delivery model.
“These complex infrastructure projects often involve multiple stakeholders, changing scopes, and tight timelines. When responsibility is fractured, miscommunication, handover risks, and coordination delays can halt progress and weaken accountability.”
To tackle these challenges, Pacific Energy needed more control over quality, delivery timeframes, and performance. So instead of relying on third parties, the company built in-house capability in Australia, which enabled it to integrate design, manufacturing, construction, communications and controls, commissioning and operations.
“Our integrated model reduces the delays that come with traditional procurement and contractor layering. We’re structured to move fast, from design through to deployment. This ensures continued innovation and helps us to be more agile, and ultimately more effective at delivering real outcomes.
“[But] it’s not just about being fast – it’s about being better each time. And because we’re responsible for the full lifecycle of many of our systems, we have a real incentive to keep improving,” Mr Mustafa said.
Pacific Energy’s 24MW solar farm at the Tropicana Power Station comprises 42,120 solar panels. Image: Pacific Energy
The gold standard
When AngloGold Ashanti Australia (AGAA) engaged Pacific Energy to deliver a landmark clean power project for its Tropicana Gold Mine, it was clear to the team that an aligned approach was not just beneficial, but necessary.
The objectives seemed simple enough: upgrade the existing power station to meet evolving needs by integrating 61MW of clean energy into the existing gas-powered system; decarbonise the mine’s operations to support AngloGold Ashanti’s goal to cut global net carbon emissions from energy use by 30 per cent by 2030; and ensure there was always reliable, efficient power to meet the site’s load demands in all weather conditions.
However, doing so on a brownfield site, without the site going black, required an innovative solution. As a result, this project pushed the envelope with what can be done with renewables in existing power stations in remote places – and achieved three Australian firsts in green energy. Mr Mustafa explained that as the Tropicana mine’s needs fluctuate, Pacific Energy needed a detailed understanding of how the power system relates to production and the potential flow on effects the project would have on site operations.
“More than 12 months of planning went into understanding the site and AGAA’s needs. We conducted extensive dynamic modelling, which integrated all our expertise and past experiences into the design process. It provided a faithful representation of real-world scenarios and acted as a ‘live workshop’ and continuous improvement loop.
“This not only built our technical capacity, but consolidated the technical learning of all team members involved in the in-house manufacturing and on-site implementation,” he said.
The Tropicana gold mine is now being powered by the largest off-grid hybrid power station in Australia. Image: Pacific Energy
Identifying the right energy mix and the equipment needed to reliably meet site needs laid the groundwork for the project’s success, however, moving the mine towards hydrocarbons off (HOFF) operations introduced unique hurdles around effective protection system operation and power system stability.
“There were no suitable ‘off the shelf’, whole-of-system controllers that met the project’s technical and commercial needs,” Mr Mustafa said.
“We tailored our control systems to differentiate between all renewable energy and thermal sources, select the appropriate blend of power for various operating scenarios, and maintain system stability, all while maximising renewable energy utilisation.”
By consolidating and embedding the learnings from its previous projects, Pacific Energy developed and delivered a bespoke design, which involved integrating four 6MW asynchronous wind turbines (with inverter technology), a 24MW solar farm (42,120 panels) and a 13MW BESS (battery energy storage system) into the existing 54MW gas system.
Breaking new ground
Tropicana’s design and delivery involved experts from across Pacific Energy’s national footprint, which Mr Mustafa said really fostered a strong sense of learning, innovation and collective achievement across the entire business.
Upon its completion, this project became not only one of the largest off-grid hybrid power stations in Australia, with 115MW capacity, but the most remote too.
And, despite being located 330km north of Kalgoorlie and only accessible via a single 400km unsealed access road, it also meets the highest peak load demand (41MW) of any hybrid system in Australia’s resources sector.
For Mr Mustafa, the success of this project is measured in how effectively the solar, wind and BESS components have been integrated with each other and subsequently with the existing power station – an undertaking made considerably more complex for a brownfields site, where interfacing with legacy systems, navigating existing site constraints and maintaining operational continuity introduce integration challenges far beyond those typically encountered in greenfields developments.
“Our ability to deliver a high-quality solution was underpinned by our understanding of all the technology being integrated, and how the components related and interfaced,” he said.
“Our vertically integrated model enabled us to manufacture our PCUs and BESS units in house using world-class components so that they worked as we intended them to work, and this was the foundation of our installation and a key method of ensuring reliability and security of power generation.
“Because we manage the full lifecycle, from design through to long-term operation, we see first-hand how our systems perform over time, in real conditions, and every project becomes a source of data, experience, and improvement.
“Whether it’s improving installation practices in remote areas, or tweaking battery control algorithms for better performance, we take that learning and feed it back into the next job. It’s not theoretical, it’s practical, grounded and field-tested.”
With this project setting Tropicana on track to reduce its diesel and gas consumption for power generation by 96 per cent and 50 and per cent respectively, AGAA can reduce carbon emissions by an average of 65,000t per annum.
But, this project has done more than just increase the mine’s overall power system reliability using green energy – it proves that renewables can be successfully integrated into large-scale brownfield sites.
It also shows that it’s possible to deliver consistent, reliable HOFF power for mines with higher demand loads than previously achieved in Western Australia’s mining sector.
Through its integrated model, Pacific Energy will take the lesson it’s learned from Tropicana to empower both AGAA and the sector as a whole on their continued journey towards net zero.
For more information, visit pacificenergy.com.au