Yindjibarndi Ngurra (Country)-headquartered renewable energy developer Yindjibarndi Energy Corporation (YEC) has received development application approval from the Western Australia Shire of Ashburton for a 150 MW solar farm in the Pilbara region.
Subject to conditions, the solar array known as Project Jinbi will be built on 5.27 square-kilometres of unallocated crown land, comprise 325,000 tracking system mounted solar panels and include 48 inverters.
Jinbi Solar Farm will generate renewable energy for Pilbara-based projects owned by London-headquartered mining and materials company Rio Tinto in accordance with a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in October 2023.
It will convert a portion of the generation mix within the North West Interconnected System (NWIS) from fossil fuels, primarily gas, to renewable energy.
The proposed 25-year design life project is approximately 56 kilometres south of coastal Pilbara township Karratha and 1,500 kilometres north of Perth, adjacent to the Millstream Chichester National Park.
The development will be co-located with an existing Rio Tinto substation and high-voltage transmission infrastructure, which Rio Tinto is upgrading to accommodate he solar farm’s generation capacity.
Project Jinbi is the initial stage of a larger renewable energy project to include up to 3 GW of renewable generation capacity on YEC landholdings.
The latter part of phase 1 (Project Baru) to the west of the subject land is expected to accommodate 300 MW of wind, 250 MW of solar and an additional 55-70 kilometres of transmission infrastructure.
Battery energy storage systems (BESS) are considered for future integration into Jinbi and Baru, but not currently proposed.
YEC is a partnership between the Yindjibarndi People and Philippines-headquartered renewables developer ACEN Australia, a subsidiary of the Phillippines-based conglomerate Ayala Group.
Project Jinbi is part of Rio Tinto’s plans to decarbonise its Pilbara operations with up to 700 MW of renewables.
