Key findings from the report “Superpowering-Up: Accelerating the electrification & decarbonisation of the Pilbara” by Climate Energy Finance indicate:
1. The Pilbara region in Western Australia underpins Australia’s economic strength. It is the powerhouse of Australia’s resources export industry, the global leader in the production and export of iron ore – Australia’s #1 export commodity – and has worldscale reserves of critical minerals including lithium, strategic metals and energy transition materials.
2. Currently, to power their mobile equipment operations in the Pilbara, the mining majors burn a massive 2.4bn litres pa of heavily subsidised, imported diesel – a high emissions fossil fuel – and rely on fossil gas for stationary energy.
3. Common-user electricity infrastructure in the Pilbara would enable multiple stakeholders to efficiently and cost-effectively electrify and decarbonise their operations.
4. Australia has the potential and scale to dominate in green iron, but absent timely action on energy supply decarbonisation in the Pilbara underpinned by common-user infrastructure, it risks forgoing this once-in-a-century opportunity.
Access the complete report here
