The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) will work with Fortescue to develop, build and demonstrate new fast chargers for heavy mine site vehicles.
The $35.3 million project is set to develop six-megawatt (MW) fast chargers capable of charging 240 tonne battery-electric trucks in under 30 minutes.
“ARENA is working to reduce emissions from Australia’s heavy industry, with heavy haulage high on the priority list for the mining sector,” ARENA chief executive officer Darren Miller said.
“Heavy haulage for remote mine sites contributes around a quarter of the mining industry’s emission and is considered a hard to abate sector, so we’re investing in the technologies that will be part of the solution.”
The project will build on an existing 3MW prototype which, once developed, will be installed, demonstrated, and tested at Fortescue’s Hazelmere and Christmas Creek mine sites in Western Australia.
“If the fast charger can be successfully validated at the operational Christmas Creek mine site, we’d like to see the technology widely deployed across Australia’s resources industry,” Miller said.
The fast charger will be developed with global charging system standardisation in mind, ensuring compatibility with any equipment that meets the connector standard.
“These innovative chargers are designed to be a safe, rugged, high power and scalable fast charging solution for multiple different vehicle applications,” Fortescue Zero chief executive officer Ellie Coates said.
“Leveraging our world-class capability in battery and charging solutions from motorsport, the fast chargers have been developed for the challenging conditions of the Pilbara.
“Equipped with robotic connection options, they will be able to power Fortescue’s future 240-tonne Liebherr T 264 battery electric trucks in just 30 minutes.”
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