United States coal big Peabody introduced this week the launch of a brand new three way partnership, R3 Renewables, which can give attention to growing 3.3GW value of photo voltaic PV and 1.6GW value of battery storage capability over the subsequent 5 years.
R3 Renewables will initially give attention to growing its new renewable property on six potential websites on land on or close to earlier coal mining operations in Indiana and Illinois.
Additional, the potential growth websites and their proximity to present grid injection factors, current R3 Renewables with constructing the most important photo voltaic and battery storage tasks in each Indiana and Illinois.
The R3 Renewables three way partnership was created in partnership with the New York Metropolis based mostly Riverstone Credit score Companions power sector funding platform and international various funding agency Summit Companions Credit score Advisors.
“We’re happy to announce this new three way partnership as a part of Peabody’s dedication to be the coal producer of alternative, creating further worth from our present property, supporting our personal and our clients’ ESG ambitions and offering added financial advantages for the communities by which we work and dwell,” said Jim Grech, President and CEO of Peabody.
“Each Riverstone and Summit Companions have deep expertise throughout power and development sectors, and we imagine R3 will profit from their collective perspective on renewable power options.”
The transfer comes as one thing of a shock from Peabody, which is by far and away the largest coal producer in the USA and has failed to supply any indicators of a coal phase-out plan.
The truth is, Peabody’s “Statement on Climate Change” revealed on its web site each acknowledges “that local weather change is happening and that human exercise, together with using fossil fuels, contributes to greenhouse fuel emissions,” whereas additionally claiming “that coal is important to reasonably priced, dependable power and can proceed to play a big position within the international power combine for the foreseeable future.”
Peabody additionally operates quite a few mining operations in Australia together with the Wilpinjong and Wambo coal mines in New South Wales.
Peabody additionally revealed in 2019 the absurd “The Surprisingly Sustainable Case For Coal” white paper which claimed coal “as a sustainable power supply” which they described as “without delay a simple assertion of reality — and a provocative, even controversial, assertion” due solely to its present dominance, tied with repeatedly disproven assumptions that renewable power applied sciences can not compete, financially or effectively, with coal.
Nonetheless, even Peabody has needed to start acknowledging the fact of coal’s decline, because it did in mid-2020 when it was pressured to slash the ebook worth of the most important coal mine within the nation – the North Antelope Rochelle mine in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin—by $1.42 billion, or 22% of Peabody’s whole asset worth.
It bodes properly, then, that Peabody has not solely dedicated to growing such giant quantities of renewable power in beforehand coal dominant areas akin to Indiana and Illinois, but in addition determined to companion with confirmed funding companies like Riverstone Holdings, which give attention to financing decarbonisation tasks.
Since its founding in 2000, Riverstone has raised $43 billion in capital, together with its Decarbonisation platform, which has invested $8 billion value of capital concentrating on power transition know-how, renewable power, and decarbonisation options together with investments in Sample Vitality and Enviva.
“We’re excited to companion with Peabody and Summit Companions as we launch R3 Renewables,” stated Daniel Flannery, a managing director at Riverstone.
“As one of many world’s largest personal funding companies targeted on power, energy, decarbonization and infrastructure, we imagine we’re properly positioned to help R3 Renewables to reclaim, reimagine and repower the area by pursuing these formidable and transformative renewable power tasks.”
Joshua S. Hill is a Melbourne-based journalist who has been writing about local weather change, clear know-how, and electrical autos for over 15 years. He has been reporting on electrical autos and clear applied sciences for Renew Economy and The Driven since 2012. His most well-liked mode of transport is his toes as he by no means discovered to drive and his learner’s allow ran out.
