Pensana has signed a letter of intent securing private wire connection to battery storage operated by Yorkshire Energy Park under which it will have access to 4 MW rising to 10 MW of low carbon electricity for 10 years for its world-first rare earth processing hub powered by offshore wind.
Pensana will use the low-cost and resilient supply of low-carbon electricity to power its Saltend separation facility, and then later to power the conversion of NdPr Oxide into magnet metal, making it the first in the world to use offshore wind to produce ultra-low carbon magnet metal.
The Yorkshire Energy Park will include up to 200 MW of battery storage and is located adjacent to Pensana’s site within the Saltend Chemicals Park. The £200m next-generation energy facility will connect 7 GW of offshore wind to industrial consumers via large-scale batteries. The closest wind farm is the RWE-operated Humber Gateway located 32 kilometres from Saltend.
Pensana Chairman Paul Atherley said: “Through the private wire connection to Yorkshire Energy Park, our aim is to become the world’s lowest carbon magnet metal producer, with Pensana becoming the first company globally to use offshore wind to produce ultra-low carbon magnet metal.
“In our off-take discussions with the major Automotive OEMs there is increasing importance being placed on the security of supply and low-embedded carbon. The production of an ultra-low carbon magnet metal further enhances Saltend in its rapidly growing importance in the European and US magnet metal supply chains.”
Yorkshire Energy Park Chairman Chris Turner said: “The future for energy in the Humber estuary is very exciting, and YEP is at the forefront of the drive to zero-carbon.”
