Australia's largest remote solar farm opens in the north west

The 88-megawatt solar farm opened on Thursday March 21, with the purpose of delivering lower emissions energy to mining companies in the north west.

MMG, Mount Isa Mines and New Century are set to benefit from the produced solar energy, firmed by gas from APA's nearby Diamantina Power Station.

The solar farm is part of APA's goal to reduce the operational emissions intensity of its power generation infrastructure.

APA Group executive operations Petrea Bradford said the new infrastructure demonstrated both APA's commitment to Mount Isa and provided a model for the Australian resources sector to decarbonise.

"APA has invested more than one billion dollars in energy assets in the North West Minerals Province and we are proud of our role in the local community as we continue to work to deliver safe, reliable and affordable energy to the region," Ms Bradford said.

"Dugald River Solar Farm is Australia's largest remote-grid solar farm by megawatt capacity and its 184,000 panels cover an area 65 times the size of the Gabba playing surface in Brisbane.

"It is also a great example of how we are executing our strategy to support customers in the resources sector to decarbonise, which will be essential if we are to reach our net zero targets.

"The substantial new infrastructure required to achieve these emissions ambitions presents a significant growth opportunity for APA and our integrated assets in Mount Isa are a great example of our capabilities as we continue to execute this strategy in broader regions across Australia."

Its creation stems from the rising costs associated with gas generation and ties in with the Copperstring 2.0, transmission link to Townsville.

The new solar farm will provide about a third of the electricity needs at MMG's Dugald River mine, located 65km north-west of Cloncurry.

"As a relatively new mine, we have strong aspirations to decarbonise our mining operations, continue to reduce our carbon footprint and be a global leader in sustainability," Dugald River General Manager Tim Akroyd said.

"The introduction of renewable energy provides both environmental and economic benefits as a 24/7 operation in a remote location."

"We are already seeing the cost savings from the solar farm which is a welcome reprieve as the cost of mining continues to rise, making for more challenging economic conditions."

Dr Akroyd said plans were underway to extend Dugald River's renewable energy sources to wind.

"We are investigating the feasibility of building a wind farm at Dugald River, which would complement this new solar facility," he said.

"Our medium-term goal is for three quarters of our power to come from renewable energy sources which will deliver further cost savings to our site and reduce our environmental footprint for our local community."