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“For that, we need to run carbon-free trucks, trains, ships, carbon-free explosives, we need reliable 24/7 electrons,” Schweizer said.

There are three ways to constantly match variable wind and solar resources to the power Fortescue needs: overbuild renewable capacity so its minimum output is enough; store power when too much is generated and use it later; or so-called demand management, where the mines would occasionally reduce their power consumption.

The solution may be a combination of all three, but the main focus is storage. The likely solution is batteries, not producing green hydrogen for later use; despite Andrew Forrest’s evangelism for the clean fuel, it cannot do everything.

“For the shorter duration stuff hydrogen is very inefficient, you’re much better off with a battery, even for a couple of days,” Schweizer said.

However, hydrogen, along with hydropower, may have a role in storing large amounts of energy for occasional use. Its principal use is likely to be heat for industry and to power heavy transport, including shipping.

Fortescue will commit to a storage solution in a few years, hoping technology advances reduce the cost.

Many companies aim for net-zero by relying on renewable energy but burning gas occasionally, and offsetting the emissions by planting trees. For Fortescue, offsets are a last resort.

“Even if you covered the whole Earth’s surface with rainforest, it wouldn’t be enough,” Schweizer said.

“So we cannot count on reforestation, for more than the very hardest one per cent.”

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While storage can wait, progress on the more stable technologies of wind and solar power cannot.

In February Fortescue submitted for environmental approval plans for up to 340 wind turbines and 25 kilometres square of solar panels spread over cattle stations in WA’s Pilbara.

The Uaroo renewable energy hub south of Fortescue’s mines will supply all the electrical power the mines need as well as electricity to make green hydrogen from water to power equipment that cannot be electrified.

Fortescue has another 2030 target that will require many hubs like Uaroo around the world: to produce 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year.

Schweizer said this would require about 5 million hectares of wind farms, equal to two per cent of the area of WA, but 97 per cent of that space could still be used for agriculture.

For land in WA, Fortescue is looking for help from the state government in three areas: land reforms underway to allow pastoral land to be used for different purposes, more efficient approval processes, and support for competitors to share infrastructure.

Schweizer does not want a repeat of her experience in Queensland where three small LNG plants were built side by side near Gladstone, all supplied with gas through separate pipelines, at a cost of many billions of dollars.

Unfortunately, the Pilbara iron ore industry has done little better, with the big three miners: Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortescue, all having separate rail networks.

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