Pilbara Energy, a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortescue, has submitted its plans for a 2.1 GW wind project near Nullagine in the Pilbara region of Western Australia for federal environmental approval after reviewing its original plans (Australian government, 15/03/2026).
The Bonney Downs wind project is expected to help decarbonise Fortescue’s operations at its Christmas Creek iron ore mine site. The project has gone through “substantial redesign” that included the reduction of its number of turbines (from 200 to 100 turbines) while aiming to keep the proposed 2.1 GW generation capacity. The project is expected to have a 25-30 lifespan, with the possibility of life extension through the replacement of the turbines.
The company is developing separately a pilot project, the Nullagine pilot wind project, comprised of 17 wind turbines with 50 km of 220 kV transmission line to its Christmas Creek Mine. The stand-alone proof-of-concept project should generate operational data and learning to inform future decision-making on the larger project.
By the end of 2025, AEMO had reported that BESS projects accounted for about a third (18 GW) of the submitted projects waiting for connection to the NEM grid (Enerdata’s Global Energy Research).
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