Mining owner and operator Rio Tinto has approved construction of a 25-MW solar plant at its Kennecott copper operation in Utah, bringing the mine’s total future solar capacity to 30 MW
The solar plant will be located next to Kennecott’s existing 5 MW solar plant completed in 2023.
The two solar plants together will reduce Kennecott’s Scope 2 emissions by approximately 6 percent, or 21,000 tons of CO2 equivalent per year, equivalent to removing around 5,000 gas-powered passenger cars from the road.
“Expanding our solar farm is the latest step in our journey to reduce our carbon footprint,” Rio Tinto Kennecott’s Managing Director Nate Foster said in a statement. “Together with other measures we’ve taken, such as closing a coal-fired power plant, deploying battery electric vehicles underground, and our recent transition to renewable diesel, we have reduced our emissions by millions of tons over the past few years.
“We’re demonstrating every day that sustainable practices and resource production can go hand-in-hand to benefit our company as well as our community,” Foster added.
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While construction of the new solar plant is expected to be completed in 2025, it will also create short-term employment opportunities for up to 100 laborers, as well as a small number of long-term operations and maintenance roles.
Bechtel Corp. will design and manage construction of the plant. The 210-acre solar array will include more than 71,000 panels, which contain tellurium produced by Kennecott, a byproduct of mining and refining copper.
Rio Tinto is advancing its commercial and industrial energy transition with several projects around the world and integrating several decarbonization strategies. These include a project to study battery swapping on surface vehicles at a mine in Mongolia, trying pongamia seed oil as a renewable diesel in Australia, solar power in Canada and carbon capture in Minnesota.
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