Australia set for hydrogen plant

Bloomberg

The desolate red sands of the Pilbara region in western Australia, home to most of the iron ore mines that account for a major chunk of the nation’s export income, may one day house an ambitious hydrogen export hub.
The Asian Renewable Energy Hub, which would use electricity from wind and solar plants stretched across thousands of miles to produce hydrogen and ammonia, hopes to soon be awarded major project status by the government.
That would allow it to fast-track through approvals processes towards its target of first exports by 2028 and bolster the nation’s ambitions to become a world-leading exporter of the zero-emissions fuel.
“We’re hoping to have an announcement from the federal government on major project status soon,” Alicia Eastman, co-founder of Intercontinental Energy, which is the lead investor in the consortium developing the project, said in an interview.
Energy planners are increasingly looking to hydrogen as a cleaner alternative to natural gas in the drive to limit global warming.
Australia is seeking to use its vast empty spaces and abundant sun and wind to gain an edge in the nascent industry, which could meet almost a quarter of the world’s energy needs by 2050, according to BloombergNEF.
The project’s first phase would build wind and solar capacity of 15 gigawatts, making it the world’s largest power producing facility behind China’s Three Gorges Dam and equaling Australia’s current total commercial installations of the renewable technologies. That would be used to power electrolysers that convert the energy into hydrogen at an initial capital cost of around $16 billion.
Finding a way to transport hydrogen economically is one of the challenges faced by champions of the fuel.