NYSE-listed copper major Freeport-McMoRan has identified opportunities to integrate 450 MW of renewable energy capacity into its projects in Arizona and New Mexico in what it refers to as its Copper Skies strategy.

The projects under evaluation include wind, solar and energy storage and have the potential to be integrated into the group’s operations in the next five years, the company said on Thursday.

Freeport in 2018 and 2019 engaged the Rocky Mountain Institute to assist with identifying a pipeline of conceptual projects to support the group’s energy needs, ranging from hosting renewable energy products on its own land to the development of off-site projects.

These projects were paused in 2020, owing to the uncertainty of Covid-19 and to establish a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction target for Freeport Americas.

Simultaneously, Freeport will seek to replace long-term contracts with electricity providers with new, renewable energy supplies. This year, a green tariff with Salt River project, in Arizona, began providing renewable energy to the group’s Miami operations, in Arizona.

“We believe that opportunities such as green tariffs and the initial phase of Copper Skies will help us advance our decarbonisation efforts, potentially helping us realise up to a third of our 15% Americas GHG emissions intensity reductions target,” says the company.

Last year, Freeport set its first GHG emissions reduction target, committing to reduce GHG emissions intensity by 15% per metric ton of copper cathode produced in the Americas by 2030 (from a 2018 baseline).

This year, Freeport committed to reduce its GHG emissions intensity from its PT-FI operations, in Indonesia, by 30% per metric ton of payable copper by 2030.

Emissions from PT-FI, in Grasberg, account for about 30% of Freeport’s global absolute GHG emissions and for 50% of Scope 1 emissions.

Decarbonising electricity will be key to PT-FI reducing its carbon intensity, as the mine is powered by a 198 MW coal-fired power station and diesel generators providing peak and back-up capacity.

Freeport expects PT-FI’s average power demand to increase by about 50 MW a year as underground mining production ramps up. To support additional energy requirements, PT-FI has announced it will integrate a lower-carbon power source with the development of a dual-fuel power plant (DFPP) at the Arafura sea port facility.

The 129 MW DFPP, which will be completed in the first half of 2022, will initially use domestically produced biodiesel, but PT-FI will evaluate other options in the future, including liquefied natural gas.