Korean power giant signs up for 50GW “ultrascale” green hydrogen plan in Australia

Plans to produce up to 3.5 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year from 50GW of wind and solar installed across 15,000 square kilometres of Western Australia’s Goldfields region have a major new backer, with Korean energy giant Kepco signing up to help progress development of the “ultrascale project.”

The WA government said on Tuesday that a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed between Kepco and Western Green Energy Hub – one of Australia’s largest proposed green hydrogen hubs being developed by InterContinental Energy, CWP Global and Mirning Traditional Lands Aboriginal Corporation.

Few details of the deal are available, for now, with no sign of official announcements from any of the project partners, but WA energy minister Bill Johnston described the MoU as “a key step forward in the process of having this major project completed.”

Johnston says WGEH and Kepco will work together to assess how the huge green hydrogen hub can be created.

“This is an exciting project for Western Australia and will put our State on the forefront of producing green hydrogen, making it competitive on a worldwide scale,” the minister said.

When first announced in mid-2021, WGEH was pitched as an integrated green fuels mega project that would use the energy from 25 million solar panels and 3,000 wind turbines to produce 20 million tons of green ammonia a year for both domestic use and international export.

The project was also touted as setting up a new model for natural resource and energy companies to partner with First Nations Land Owners, through the involvement of the Mirning Traditional Lands Aboriginal Corporation.

“WGEH will be developed with complete respect for the Mirning community and its heritage in the area, with specific corporate governance requirements in this regard built into the WGEH Corporate Charter,” the companies said at the time.

Like Japan, South Korea is establishing itself as a key player in the global green hydrogen production and export market, with a number of Korean majors now collaborating on Australian projects.

At the end of last year, Korea East West Power Co, a subsidiary of Kepco, signed an MoU with Australia’s Hydrogen Utility (H2U) to fast track the development of the H2-Hub in Gladstone, which canvasses up to 3GW of electrolyser capacity in Queensland.

At the same time, Korea Midland Power Co. Ltd. (Komipo) and Perth-based Progressive Green Solution (PGS) signed a agreement to co-develop a newly unveiled project dubbed Western Giga Energy that proposes a one million tonne a year green ammonia output.