Rio Tinto, which owns 100% of the Diavik mine in the Northwest Territories of Canada, will build Canada’s biggest solar farm with the goal of providing “up to a quarter of the power needed during the three-year closure works at its Diavik mine,” IDEX Online reports.
The farm will include 6,600 two-sided panels “to capture direct sunlight and reflections from the snow”, and is expected to generate approximately 4,200 megawatt hours of carbon-free electricity a year. This will also save “1 million liters of diesel a year and cut emissions by the equivalent of 630 cars,” according to Rio Tinto.
Diavik is expected to operate until 2026 and then begin closure procedures that will last three years. The huge solar farm “will provide power for the closure work throughout.
