‘Green zinc’ a net-zero
THE Sun Metals zinc refinery in Townsville is set to be the first in the world to produce “green zinc” and achieve net-zero emissions.
Daniel Kim, the CEO of Ark Energy Corporation, which is driving the transformation, said the refinery, the state’s second-biggest electricity consumer, was on track to source 85 per cent of its power from renewable energy within four years.
He said potentially, with other options including hydrogen, it could reach 100 per cent, leading the world in the transition to net-zero emissions.
Mr Kim outlined the ambitions in an Australia-korea Energy Forum hosted by the University of Melbourne on Tuesday.
He said it was not only the “right thing” to do but also the “smart thing”, to maintain the refinery’s and its parent company Korea Zinc’s competitiveness.
Last year Sun Metals signed the RE100 Initiative, a global drive by leading businesses to transition to 100 per cent renewable electricity.
“We are on track to meet our RE100 commitment well ahead of 2040 and potentially as early as 2025,” Mr Kim said.
“We feel it’s the right thing to do to tackle and limit global warming. Increasingly, we are seeing it as the smart thing to do, to align us closely with our customers. They are hardwiring sustainability into their procurement policies.”
It would mean Sun Metals would be the world’s first refinery to produce “green zinc” by sourcing all of its power from renewable energy.
This would be significant, given its energy-intensive processing.
The refinery uses some 1.3 million megawatt hours of energy a year, behind only Gladstone’s Boyne Island alumina smelter in energy demand, and enough to power more than 300,000 Queensland homes.
Sun Metals and sister company Ark Energy are set to achieve the targets with big investments in solar and wind power.
Sun Metals developed the $200m 124Mwac solar farm outside its Stuart refinery in 2018, partly as a means to supplement its need for expensive generation from distant coal-fired power stations in central and southern Queensland.
Earlier this year, Ark Energy reached agreement with Spanish multinational Acciona to acquire a 30 per cent stake in the one of the world’s largest wind farm projects, the 923.4 megawatt Macintyre development near Warwick in southern Queensland.
That investment will amount to about $450m.
Mr Kim said the Sun Metals solar farm supplied 22 per cent of the refinery’s electricity needs, while their 30 per cent equity offtake in the wind farm would amount to 63 per cent of Sun Metals’ power requirements.
An offset arrangement would enable them to offset power drawn from the grid in Townsville.
Mr Kim said the wind farm was scheduled to be commissioned by 2024, allowing the Townsville refinery to reach the 85 per cent renewable energy mark.
“Between now and then Ark Energy will continue (its work). There are a number of options we are pursuing to plug that 15 per cent gap,” he said. “We are prepared to back ourselves. We have the courage to go down this path.”
While it was the right thing to do to reduce supply chain emissions, Mr Kim said it was also about ensuring they remained globally competitive as a preferred supplier of metals.
The production of “green aluminium” was fetching a premium with European and US buyers and “green zinc” was expected to follow the trend.
“We are making sure we continue to be a preferred supplier,” Mr Kim said.