Fortescue signs partner to engineer transition to green energy, hydrogen and industry

Fortescue Future Industries says it has signed a new partnership with global engineering firm SMEC to support the transition to green electricity, green hydrogen, green ammonia, and other green industrial products.

SMEC has its origins in the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme that it helped engineer, and was privatised in 1993 and then bought out by Singapore based infrastructure services group Surbana Jurong in 2016.

FFI, essentially the green energy arm of Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals mining business, has one of the most ambitious green energy targets in the world, including to produce 15 million tonnes of renewable green hydrogen a year by 2030, rising to 50 million tonnes per year in the following decade.

The deal with SMEC involves the provision of engineering and technical services for the massive green energy and industrial projects that will be needed to meet those targets.

“FFI sees great opportunities in leveraging the global breadth and depth of capability of some of the world’s industry leading engineering houses to support and develop our front-end engineering studies,” FFI CEO Mark Hutchinson said in a statement.

“Partnerships such as this will be critical in ensuring FFI can achieve the global scale and have the depth of impact needed to lead the world’s effort to decarbonise.”

Hari Poologasundram, the CEO of SMEC, said the world is currently at “cross-roads” in the transition to renewables.

“Bringing together the technical expertise of SMEC’s global workforce and FFI’s mission as a global green energy company; together we have a shared vision for a more sustainable future,” he said.

“With our team of international specialists in renewable energy infrastructure, but also technical advisory services we look forward to working collaboratively with FFI’s team as they develop green energy projects globally.”