(Credit: Heliogen)Rio Tinto and renewable energy company Heliogen are exploring the deployment of Heliogen solar power technology at Rio Tinto’s borates mine in Boron, California.
Under an MOU, Heliogen will deploy its proprietary, artificial intelligence-powered technology at the Boron operation, where it will use heat from the sun to generate and store energy to power the mine’s industrial processes.
The two companies will begin detailed planning and securing government permits for the project, with the aim of starting operations in 2022. The companies will also use the Boron installation to begin exploring the potential for deployments of Heliogen’s technology at Rio Tinto’s other operations around the world to supply process heat, which accounted for 14 percent of Scope 1 & 2 emissions from the Group’s managed operations in 2020.
At Rio Tinto’s Boron mine, Heliogen’s tach will use AI to control an array of 40,000 computer-vision controlled mirrors spread over an area in the Mojave Desert as large as 100 football fields, to capture energy used to make steam. Heliogen’s system will also store the captured energy in the form of heat, allowing it to power nighttime operations.
It would be the first time concentrated solar is being used to power a mine in the U.S., maybe even the world.
The site currently generates steam using a natural gas cogeneration plant and natural gas fired boilers. Heliogen’s installation will supplement these energy sources by generating up to 35,000 pounds per hour of steam to power operations, with the potential to reduce carbon emissions at the Boron site by around seven percent.
Rio Tinto will also assess the potential for larger scale use of the Heliogen technology at Boron to reduce the site’s carbon footprint by up to 24 percent.
Heliogen, backed by Bill Gates and biotech billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, which emerged from stealth mode in late 2019 by announcing a solar breakthrough, says its mission of slashing global carbon emissions by replacing fossil fuels with sunlight, as well as its focus on industrial sectors, made them an ideal partner for Rio Tinto, which is committed to decarbonizing its global operations.
The announcement makes Rio Tinto Heliogen's first announced customer. The partnership is a key test of whether Heliogen's technology can truly replace fossil fuels used to power large-scale industrial operations
Rio Tinto Chief Executive Jakob Stausholm says, "Our work with Heliogen is part of Rio Tinto’s commitment to spend approximately $1 billion on emissions reduction initiatives through to 2025.
For its part, Heliogen says it's excited to take this step in pursuing Heliogen’s goal of avoiding more than 1 gigaton of CO2 emissions – 3 percent of the world’s annual total – from the global economy by turning sunlight into an industrial energy source.
