Rio Tinto Group, an Anglo-Australian mining company, has issued a request for proposal (RFP) to develop 4 GW of utility-scale wind and solar power projects for its aluminium projects in central and southern Queensland, bordering south Australia. The large-scale renewable projects would assist the company in achieving its climate change targets, which are aligned with the Paris Accord.
Rio Tinto’s new solar and wind power projects would be backed by the formal market proposal, which would start supplying power to the company’s Gladstone assets through the Queensland grid by 2030.
Reportedly, Rio Tinto currently operates three production assets in Australia’s Gladstone region: the Boyne smelter, the Yarwun alumina refinery, and the Queensland Alumina refinery. In July 2021, Rio Tinto signed a power purchase agreement for a new renewable energy plant in Fort Dauphin, Madagascar, to support the operations of its QMM ilmenite mine. Their operations in Madagascar would achieve their carbon neutral goal by 2023 thanks to this initiative, which uses solar and wind energy.
