Agnew Hybrid Renewable Project recognised for engineering excellence

Leading energy producer EDL and global miner Gold Fields were joint winners at the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards for 2020, as their Agnew Hybrid Renewable Project was hailed as “a significant step forward in hybrid renewable energy engineering at scale”. Australian Engineering Excellence Awards Chief Judge Brian Haggerty said the awards inspire and encourage engineering distinction through collaboration, innovation and technical excellence, and recognise the engineering that improves our lives and sets new benchmarks. EDL CEO James Harman said their journey into hybrid renewable energy started in 2015, and continued to reach greater heights with the hybrid renewable microgrid at Agnew. “The microgrid has surpassed our expectations for high renewable energy penetration with 99.99% reliability, and EDL is both humbled and delighted by Engineers Australia’s recognition of our efforts in this field,” said Mr Harman. “We also congratulate our customer and awards co-winner, Gold Fields—their clean energy vision inspired our work with our capable suppliers to push the boundaries of existing technologies to develop this ground-breaking hybrid renewable energy system.” Gold Fields Executive Vice President Australasia Stuart Mathews said the company was proud to be able to showcase this project with EDL. “It is an outstanding example of the capacity of the hybrid renewable energy model to meet the dynamic power requirements of remote mining operations,” said Mr Mathews. “This is a very clear demonstration of our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint whilst strengthening our security of supply, and paves the way for the industry as a whole to implement renewable solutions.”