Offshore Wind Could Power Alcoa’s Revived Australian Smelter
Offshore Wind Could Power Alcoa’s Revived Australian Smelter
(Bloomberg) -- Alcoa Corp.’s aluminum smelter in southern Australia could switch to renewable power under plans for a 1 gigawatt offshore wind project.
The Spinifex Offshore Wind Farm, which would be located about 10 kilometers (6 miles) off the coast of southwestern Victoria, could supply the Portland smelter and the region’s electricity grid, Alinta Energy Pty. said Tuesday in a statement.
“This proposal offers an ability to make a step change impact to Portland Aluminium’s carbon footprint,” Ron Jorgensen, manager of the Alcoa smelter, said in the statement. Alinta will conduct wind monitoring and site surveys to assess the project’s viability next year.
Australia has passed laws that’ll enable the development of renewables projects off the nation’s 16,000-mile coastline and add to the country’s already strong deployment of solar and onshore wind. Aluminum smelters are among the nation’s largest electricity consumers and producers including Rio Tinto Group are also examining options to switch to cleaner power sources.
The Portland joint venture is restarting production lines mothballed since 2009 to add as much as 35,000 tons a year of additional capacity and meet rising demand for the material used in beer cans to jetliners, Pittsburgh-based Alcoa said last month.
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