The Goldfields Agnew Mine is the site of one of the first, and most successful, renewable micro-grids developed to power metallurgical processing and mining infrastructure. The micro grid consists of a combination of fossil fuels, 16MW gas and 3MW diesel generation, supplemented with 4MW solar generation, 18MW Wind Generation from 5 Gold Wind Australia towers supported with a 13MW/4MWh Battery Energy Storage System.
icubed supported Nacap, a Quanta Services Company, with the design, documentation and construction phase supervision of the wind farm portion of the project. Agnew saw the mobilisation of a CC8800 main crane for the purpose of turbine erection. The CC8800 required a full 13.6m wide runway to traffic fully rigged from hardstand to hardstand. The project was supported with materials and resources from the nearby gold mine.
Agnew is the first of a suite of mines exploring the opportunity for off-grid privately owned renewable generation.