Acciona signs solar supply deal for 3GW green hydrogen plant in Queensland

Spanish renewable energy giant Acciona Energia says it has signed a supply deal for a new 600MW solar farm for a massive 3GW green hydrogen facility proposed for the Gladstone region in Queensland.

Acciona says it has secured land from the state government for the 600MW Aldoga solar farm, which will supply the Central Hydrogen Hydrogen Project led by Queensland state government owned generation company Stanwell that also includes four major Japanese industrial giants.

The project includes Iwatani Corp, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Kansai Electric Power and Marubeni Corporation, along with Australia’s APA, and aims to produce green hydrogen for use in local industrial facilities, with some also available for export.

The plan is for an electrolysis complex that will grow in stages to 3,000MW by 2031. It aims to produce about 100 tons per day of green hydrogen by 2026, scaling up to 900 tons per day of hydrogen by 2031.

That first stage translates into production of around 35,000 tonnes of green hydrogen a year, and a 300MW hydrogen facility by 2026. That alone will require around 1080MW of wind and solar capacity to feed it, according to a recent presentation by Stanwell.

The plan is to increase that ten-fold by 2030 – for a hydrogen electrolyser facility with a capacity of 3GW or 3.5GW and production of 350,000 tonnes a year –  which will require 9GW of wind and solar. A longer term plan to increase the capacity to 6.5GW will require 20GW of wind and solar.

So it is clear that the Aldoga deal will just be the first of potentially dozens of similar scale projects.

“We will leverage the direct connection to the Aldoga Solar Farm to power stage one of the proposed CQ-H2 hydrogen facility, which is a positive step towards supporting the production of renewable hydrogen in the Gladstone region,” Stanwell’ CEO Michael O’Rourke said in a statement.

The Aldoga solar farm is expected to begin construction in September 2023, with generation scheduled to commence in December 2025.

Acciona, meanwhile, is preparing to begin production at the first industrial-scale green hydrogen plant on the island of Majorca in Spain before the end of 2021, with production of more than 300 tons per year.

That project will produce hydrogen for use in buses and rental fuel cell hydrogen cars, as well as for ferries, port operation and for heat and power in buildings.

It is also involved in a joint venture for green hydrogen opportunities in Spain and Portugal with US-based Plug Power, which is involved in another venture with Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries to build a 2GW electrolyser manufacturing facility in Gladstone.

See also: Could Australia produce 3,000 per cent renewables? Experts say it might be necessary

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