The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced a A$10 million grant to Fortescue to develop a six-megawatt fast charger unit for heavy mining equipment.
The funding has been awarded under the Australian Government’s Industrial Transformation Stream, part of the Powering the Regions Fund.
Building on an existing 3-MW prototype, the ‘Fast Charger for Heavy Battery Electric Vehicles’ project will develop multiple test unit chargers, capable of charging 240-tonne battery electric trucks in under 30 minutes. Once developed, the fast chargers will be installed, demonstrated and tested at Fortescue’s Hazelmere and Christmas Creek mine sites.
“ARENA is working to reduce emissions from Australia’s heavy industry, with heavy haulage high on the priority list for the mining sector,” said ARENA CEO Darren Miller. “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 fast chargers will be developed with global charging system standardisation in mind, noted ARENA officials, ensuring compatibility with any equipment that meets the connector standard across mining, rail, and other heavy industry applications.
“As part of our decarbonisation plan, we intend to roll out around 250 fast chargers of varying capacities across our iron ore operations before the end of this decade,” said Fortescue Metals Chief Executive Officer Dino Otranto. “Not only will this project serve as a catalyst for demand from external heavy industry customers, but it will also enable a significant reduction in emissions.”
Preliminary testing is currently underway, with the aim to deploy the first production 6-MW charger by the end of 2025.