Solomon Emissions Reduction Project (Revoked)

The Solomon Emissions Reduction Project (Revoked) was an industrial energy efficiency initiative located at Fortescue's Solomon Hub iron ore mine, approximately 60km north of Tom Price in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Registered in July 2017, the project operated for nearly four years before being voluntarily revoked in April 2021. The Solomon Hub is a massive mining operation comprising the Firetail and Kings deposits, situated in a remote, semi-arid landscape characterized by iron-rich red earth, rocky outcrops, and spinifex grasslands.

The project operated under the Industrial Electricity and Fuel Efficiency methodology. This method awards carbon credits for projects that improve the energy efficiency of industrial equipment, such as electricity generators, thereby reducing the emissions intensity of the power produced. In the context of the Solomon Hub, the project activities focused on optimizing the control and operation of electricity generation equipment. This likely involved early efforts to improve the efficiency of the site's diesel or gas generation assets prior to larger infrastructure overhauls.

The project's revocation in April 2021 coincides with a significant shift in Fortescue’s energy strategy for the region. Around this time, Fortescue was advancing its "Pilbara Energy Connect" program and constructing the new 165MW gas-fired Pilbara Energy Generation (PEG) Power Station at the Solomon site. It is highly probable that the original 2017 project was revoked because it was superseded by this larger, site-wide energy transition, which introduced new high-efficiency Rolls Royce gas engines and integrated renewable energy, rendering the specific crediting baseline of the original project obsolete.