The 60MW Chichester solar farm in the Pilbara. Image: Alinta Energy
The huge 26GW wind and solar project in the Pilbara – one of the biggest in the world – has a new name, a new major shareholder and operator in global oil giant bp, and a renewed focus on opportunities in the domestic market
The Asia Renewable Energy Hub has been renamed the Australian Renewable Energy Hub, so it keeps its acronym.
But the new name also coincides with a commitment to focus – at least initially – on the local market, including green steel manufacturing and the greening of the giant iron ore mines in the Pilbara.
BP, as flagged in June, is taking a 40.5 percent equity stake and will operate the project, and has now finalised that transaction, leaving the remaining shareholders with smaller stakes – InterContinental Energy (26.4%), CWP Global (17.8%) and Macquarie Capital and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (15.3%).
Bp says AREH has the potential to be one of the largest renewable and green hydrogen hubs in the world.
But its initial plans will be to use around 3GW of wind and solar to supply renewable power, and green hydrogen hydrogen and ammonia, to miners and industrial users in the Pilbara, most of whom have serious net zero targets, before it looks at exports to major international markets.
Bp says the massive renewable resources will help with the greening of iron ore mining and processing, the start of green steel production, replacing diesel fuel used in trains and heavy transport and local electricity generation, and in bunkering of green shipping fuels at Port Hedland.
Lucy Nation, bp’s project director and Vice President of Hydrogen in AsiaPac, says that – subject to an Indigenous land use agreement with the Nyangumarta People – the project will be developed in multiple phases, to a total capacity of 26GW.
At that full size, it will have the potential of generating around 90 terawatt hours a year, the equivalent of one third of all the electricity generated in Australia in 2021 (265TWh, including off grid areas).
“We thought carefully about the project name, and decided we wanted to better reflect its prime location and showcase Australia’s natural assets, as well as the country’s aspiration to become a renewable energy superpower,” Nation said.
“We want to provide green power to the Pilbara, as well as harness Western Australia’s fantastic renewable energy to produce green hydrogen and green ammonia for local and international use.”
But whether it gets to that full size will likely depend on whether it can find a place in the hydrogen or ammonia export market, amid questions over the costs of transport and the emissions benefits of coal generators using green ammonia as a substitute.
CWP Global, meanwhile, has signed what it describes as a landmark agreement with the government of Djibouti to develop a new 10GW renewable energy and green hydrogen hub on the Horn of Africa.
The project will make a major contribution to realize the African nation’s aspirations for cleaner and more secure energy supplies, create green jobs and value-add industries, and generate exports to fast-emerging markets for low-carbon fuels and industrial products.
CWP Global chairman Mark Crandall said the project would diversify Djibouti’s energy mix, provide secure potable water supplies to local communities, further develop local and regional agriculture, and open the door to emerging international markets for green hydrogen and derivatives, including green ammonia.
CWP says it now has a portfolio of seven large-scale renewables and green hydrogen hubs in Africa, Australia and South America, including the flagship AREH project in Australia.
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