Rio Tinto has energized a new 25-megawatt solar plant at its Kennecott copper operations in Utah, showcasing a circular critical-minerals supply chain in which tellurium produced at the site is used to manufacture the panels now powering it. Together with the 5MW solar plant completed in 2023, Kennecott now has 30MW of solar capacity-- enough to power approximately 1,026 average American homes annually and reduce Kennecott's Scope 2 emissions by about 6% (20,000 tonnes CO2e). This is equivalent to removing 4,400 cars from the road each year.
Construction of the 25MW plant began in October 2024 in partnership with Bechtel, was completed and commissioned in October last year, and energized in December. The new solar array includes over 71,000 panels, containing tellurium produced at Kennecott, a critical mineral for solar technology. Kennecott began producing tellurium in 2022 as a byproduct of copper refining, making it one of only two U.S. producers of this critical mineral.
Tellurium from Kennecott is converted into thin-film semiconductor materials by 5N Plus Inc. in Canada and then supplied primarily to First Solar for the manufacturing of the photovoltaic panels now installed at Kennecott, keeping the entire tellurium supply chain in North America.
