PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Major BHP on Wednesday announced plans to reduce emissions from electricity use at its Queensland coal mines by 50% by 2025, signing a renewable power purchasing agreement with Queensland’s state-owned clean energy generator and retailer CleanCo.

The agreement will run for five years from January 2021, and would effectively displace an estimated 1.7-million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent between 2021 and 2025, which the miner said was equivalent to the annual emissions of around 400 000 combustion engine cars.

The agreement is the first of its kind signed by BHP in Australia and follows the company’s shift to 100% renewables in its Chilean operations at Escondida and Spence from the mid-2020s. It will also support the development of new solar and wind farms in Queensland, the Western Downs green power hub due for completion in late 2022, and Karara wind farm due for completion in early 2023.

“This is an important step forward in BHP’s transition to more sustainable energy use across our portfolio, and a first for our Australian operations. It will diversify our energy supply, help to reduce our energy costs, and reduce BHP’s Australian Scope 2 emissions by 20% from 2020 levels,” said BHP’s president for Minerals Australia, Edgar Basto.

“This is a prime example of prudent business decisions going hand-in-hand with social value, strengthening our business and benefitting the community.”

BHP Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) asset president James Palmer said that the contract would help the operations across Queensland to further increase their sustainability through reducing the greenhouse gas emissions generated from electricity use by half.

“It will also support two greenfield renewable projects that in turn are expected to generate regional jobs in Queensland,” Palmer added.

Over the five-year agreement, power will be provided via the grid, and predominantly contracted from a combination of solar, wind, hydro and gas generation.

For the first two years, power will be contracted from CleanCo’s low emissions portfolio, which includes hydro and gas generation assets. From late 2022, the newly operational solar and wind farms are expected to progressively contribute up to half the electricity requirements, with the remainder supported by CleanCo’s low emissions portfolio.

Combined with large-scale generation certificates, this will enable BHP to reduce Scope 2 emissions from its Queensland operations by 50% by 2025, based on 2020 levels.