Pilbara Indigenous company Red Rock Services creates solar amenity block

A local Indigenous corporation has created a first-of-its-kind solar amenity facility to be rolled out at sites in the Pilbara. The amenities block was designed and built by Red Rock Engineering to provide off-the-grid solutions for mining companies out bush. The facility are fully solar-powered with air-conditioning and have an in-built ballast system to remove the need for concrete blocks. Red Rock Services manager Craig Moss said the amenities could run 24 hours a day on solar and its battery could last three days in a blackout. Mr Moss said the idea behind the project was to minimise carbon emissions on country. “So we minimise emissions and footprints on country over the future, which is a massive thing,” he said. “Obviously we can’t fix what has been done in the past.” Red Rock Engineering director Shaun Ramirez said the issue with solar in the past was the limitations of inverter technology. “It’s leading back to days before; there was no carbon footprint in Australia by Aboriginal people,” he said. “We’ve retained some focus on that on the business side of things, trying to establish the actual Indigenous footprint.” Director Adam Lingforth said making a solar-powered facility was a “no brainer”.