Major hydrogen, renewables project eyed in W Australia

A group of Hong Kong- and Australia-based companies are considering an integrated green fuels project in Western Australia (WA) that could produce up to 3.5mn t/yr of green hydrogen, equivalent to over 5pc of current global supplies.

The Western Green Energy Hub (WGEH) project is being undertaken by Hong Kong-based hydrogen firm Intercontinental Energy (ICE), Australian renewables developer CWP Renewables and Mirning Green Energy, which is owned by indigenous land owners.

WGEH's green hydrogen production of up to 3.5mn t/yr will be converted into either around 20mn t/yr of green ammonia — equivalent to around 8.5pc of current global ammonia production — or other green fuels, the companies said today. The hydrogen electolysers will use up to 50GW of wind and solar power that will be installed across a 15,000km² site.

The project could cost up to $70bn, ICE said. A final investment decision is not targeted until after 2028.

The project has secured a licence to collect data and study its feasibility on the proposed site, the WA government said. "The Western Green Energy Hub is a truly massive proposal that would see WA home to one of the world's largest renewable energy projects," the state's hydrogen industry minister Alannah MacTiernan said.

Global pure hydrogen supply is around 60mn t/yr. WGEH, which will be almost double the size of any previously announced project tracked by Argus, follows an established formula by selecting a site at which both solar and wind renewables can be deployed. This configuration allows the site to operate on a diurnal basis — solar in the day and wind at night — maximising electrolyser uptime, reducing production cost and speeding-up project payback time.

The $70bn estimated cost for WGEH is almost double that of the Asian Renewables Hub (AREH), a separate project in WA that is also being developed by a consortium including ICE, which has a cost estimate of around $36bn for a project around half the size.

But given WGEH may start later than AREH, which is targeting FID by 2025, savings in electrolyser and renewable installation costs could reduce the overall project cost.

By Tim Hard