Korean giant Samsung signs up for $5 billion Arrowsmith green hydrogen project in W.A.

Perth-based hydrogen company Infinite Green Energy (IGE) says it will partner with Korean industrial giant Samsung to build its “world-scale” Arrowsmith hydrogen facility, one of the leading green hydrogen projects in Australia that is expected to cost up to $5 billion.

The plant is proposed for Arrowsmith, a small rural town about 300 kilometres north of Perth, and will eventually produce up to 300 tonnes of green hydrogen per day, or more than 100,000 tonnes a year, equivalent to 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 avoided each year.

It will be built on a 1,929 hectare property previously used for cattle grazing, and the project will include 700MW of electrolysers, 750MW of solar PV, 1,550MW of wind capacity and 240MW of batteries.

Further expansion of the grid will enable up to 7GW of wind and solar to be sourced, to feed some 2,100MW of electrolyser capacity. The first hydrogen is expected to be produced in 2028.

That hydrogen is mostly slated to meet demand in Asia, particularly in Japan and South Korea. Both countries have already struck deals with Australia to develop a shared hydrogen (and low-emissions technology) economy, and both have invested heavily in hydrogen policy to shore up their future energy security.

Japan and South Korea also produce nearly all hydrogen passenger cars in the world.

The Arrowsmith project is the more ambitious sister project to IGE’s modest MEG HP1 project in Northam.

IGE says the MEG HP1 facility will begin producing hydrogen in 2024, which means it looks set to be Australia’s first up-and-running commercial green hydrogen plant, producing an initial four tonnes of hydrogen per day for the transport sector.

“Today’s announcement builds on the partnership we announced with Samsung C&T earlier this year for the development of our Northam MEG HP1 Project, which has established a strong foundation for our relationship,” said Infinite Green Energy CEO Stephen Gauld.

“Through this agreement, Samsung C&T will provide additional resources focussed on delivering green hydrogen for export and domestic customers from our Arrowsmith facility.

IGE Chairman and former Woodside executive Peter Coleman welcomed the partnership.

“We are very pleased to welcome Samsung C&T as a key partner in our world leading Arrowsmith Project,” he said. “Samsung C&T bring knowledge, skills and relationships that will be critical to the successful development of Arrowsmith”.

IGE rebranded from Infinite Blue Energy in 2022, a smart move given the controversy over so-called ‘blue hydrogen’.

WA Hydrogen Industry Minister Roger Cook said his government was pleased by the announcement, which marks a critical first step to the state’s future hydrogen ambitions.

“Partnerships like these are vital to the delivery of the 2030 vision under the Western Australian Renewable Hydrogen Strategy and future opportunities that come with it,” he said.

Renewable hydrogen is a core component of WA’s strategy to position itself for economic prosperity in a net-zero world – the state is currently the nation’s largest producer of natural gas.

Whether hydrogen will really make up a major component of the global future energy mix is up for debate.

Some critics say heavy investments in hydrogen are drawing funding away from the cheaper, more proven renewable energy sources like wind and solar, while others raise doubts that hydrogen could really become the primary energy source for industries like haulage.

On the other hand, hydrogen is tipped to help hard-to-abate sectors like steelmaking decarbonise, but most hydrogen is currently produced from fossil fuels by steam reforming methane gas, a process that produces CO2 emissions. With that in mind, some level of green hydrogen production is sorely needed.