Agnew gold mine power source. Image: EDL
Two South Korea power companies have signed MoUs that could fast track the development of two major multi-gigawatt renewable energy projects that will supply green hydrogen and green ammonia.
The deals involve a previously announced H2-Hub in Gladstone, which canvasses up to 3GW of electrolyser capacity in Queensland, a newly unveiled project dubbed Western Giga Energy that proposes a one million tonne a year green ammonia project Western Australia.
The Queensland project is being described as a multi-billion industrial-scale green hydrogen and ammonia production facility, with a planned capacity of up to 3 gigawatts of electrolysis and up to 5,000 tonnes per day of green ammonia production.
The MoU has been signed by Australia’s Hydrogen Utility (H2U) and Korea East West Power Co., a subsidiary of the Korea energy giant Kepco.
The project is based around the port of Gladstone – which earlier this week unveiled a 10-year green energy transition plan signed off by the local council – and will seek to export green hydrogen and green ammonia from Queensland to help cut emissions in power stations in Korea.
Korea East Power is planning a progressive conversion of its power generation facilities to use green fuels ,in particular green hydrogen and green ammonia.
It has already invested into the development of the 202MW Columboola solar farm in the Western Downs region of Queensland, although the deal with H2U envisages tapping into many gigawatts of new renewable capacity to source its green hydrogen and ammonia needs.
“This export-market offtake relationship, along with the domestic market relationship announced with Orica earlier this year, represent a huge vote of confidence in our project”, H2U Founder and CEO Attilio Pigneri said in a statement.
The proposed 3GW electrolyser facility will use 100 per cent renewable energy from new-build solar and wind resources in Queensland and attract $4.7 billion of investment during its phased construction.
The H2-HubTM Gladstone is scheduled for operational activity to begin in late 2025, with the latter Expansion phase to take place between 2027-2030.
In Western Australia, the agreement has been signed by Korea Midland Power Co. Ltd. (Komipo) and Perth-based Progressive Green Solution (PGS), with a view to developing 3-4GW of large scale wind and solar over two sites in the Pilbara in the state’s north and near Geraldton in the state’s mid-west region.
The project seems at a very early stage, although advisor Ray Wills says it has an ambitious timeline, with the Korea power producer wanting first production as early as 2028, and full production in the early 2030s.
“As the world transitions to clean energy and carbon neutrality, Western Australia has an enormous potential to exploit its massive renewable energy resources to produce and distribute easily transportable liquid we call “Giga Energy”,” the company’s said in a statement.
“While many projects have been announced globally and within Australia, many projects have a target to commence in the next decade. Western Giga Energy aims to commence by the end of this decade by completing Feasibility Studies and a Final Investment Decision (FID) by 2024.
“(It) has set a delivery target for the projects first shipment by 2028.”
It says the first project delivering a million tonnes of Green Ammonia annually will be based in the Pilbara, and a further project will follow in Western Australia’s mid-west near Geraldton. However, it says land agreements have yet to be obtained.
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