Fortescue says first 2GW electrolyser factory will be too small, plans more

The new head of Fortescue Future Industries, Mark Hutchinson, says the company’s first hydrogen electrolyser factory, due to come on line in early 2023, will be too small to meet the company’s hydrogen ambitions, are more manufacturing plants are planned.

FFI’s first electrolyser factory, a 2GW facility currently being built at the new Green Manufacturing Hub in Gladstone, was hailed as the world’s biggest when first unveiled last year. But it will make barely a dent in the company’s huge green hydrogen ambitions, which are to produce 15 million tonnes a year by 2030.

“When I think about how big this market is, it’s as big as replacing the entire fossil fuel market in the world, and it’s real now,” Hutchinson told Bloomberg at the sidelines of the federal government’s jobs summit in Canberra last Friday.

“We’ll announce over the next few months some big investments in some plants,” Hutchinson added.

Hutchinson, a former head of GE in Europe, took over the role as head of Andrew Forrest’s ambitious green hydrogen plans early last month, taking over from Julie Shuttleworth.

He has an “operating” budget of more than $1 billion for the current financial year and now heads a team of more than 1,000 that is seemingly growing rapidly.

These include some big names such as former RBA deputy Guy Debelle as his CFO, and former AGL boss Andrew Vesey as head of US operations, and ex CleanCo boss Maia Schweizer as head of the western half of the company’s Australian operations, which includes several massive wind, solar and hydrogen projects.

FFI has signed a series of significant MoUs with companies such as Germany’s E.ON and others, but is yet to finalise those supply deals, and Australia is running into stiff competition from a multiple other countries keen to grab a share of the nascent green hydrogen market.

Fortescue’s green hydrogen business is also going to be bigger than the iron ore market that company founder and major shareholder Andrew Forrest built his billions on.

“Once we get going at scale and just looking at the projects we have, it’s enormous,” Hutchinson said.