Fortescue showed off its the first of its future electric 240-tonne Liebherr Mining T 264 trucks this week, but with one key omissions: The truck’s huge battery is still three years away the new hauler is powered by a diesel engine.
The T 264 fleet will start being converted to electric from 2026, a Fortescue spokesperson told TheDriven.
“The delivery of our first T 264 truck from Liebherr marks an important step in our decarbonisation journey,” they said.
“While initially powered by a diesel engine, the fleet will be converted to our in-house battery solution being developed by Fortescue WAE.
“The first battery electric production trucks will be arriving at our Pilbara operations in 2026.”
Some of the first 120 trucks will be fitted with batteries in Perth, and some in Virginia.
The batteries themselves will be made in the Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE) facilities in the UK, but Fortescue received the first 1.4-MWh prototype battery in January in Perth.
The unit is made of eight sub packs which each containing 36 battery modules. The whole thing measures 3.6 x 1.6 x 2.4 m.
Fortescue Future Industries bought WAE, the offshoot of the Formula 1 specialists Williams Grand Prix Engineering, for $A310 million in January 2022.
The company has already started trialling electric 260 tonne haul trucks in the Pilbara and WAE is building a 3MW charging station.
A hydrogen fuel cell haul truck is also being trialled at one of its mine sites, and this month it took delivery of a Liebherr electric excavator.
In a presentation to investors and analysts earlier this month, Fortescue says WAE is working on a prototype for exchangeable batteries, with eight sub-packs per heavy haul vehicle, and it’s trialling off-grid hydrogen fuel cell systems.
Last year the company also unveiled a $50 million plan to develop a regenerating battery electric iron ore train project – dubbed the Infinity Train – in partnership with WAE. The idea is to build a locomotive with huge batteries that can regenerate on the downhill run from the Pilbara to the coast with enough power to make it back to the mine site.
In July this year a spokesperson for the company told TheDriven that the project is still in the studies phase.
In spite of that, Fortescue still expects to start using two electric locomotives when they arrive in 2024.
Fortescue estimates it emits more than 2.5 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent each year from its mining operations, including shipping and tug boat operations.
Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.
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