Massive 3,000MW Queensland green hydrogen plant a step closer to reality

A massive renewable hydrogen export project in Queensland is a step closer to reality, having progressed to the next stage of the federal environmental approvals process,

The 3,000MW H2-Hub, being developed by The Hydrogen Utility, which proposes to produce and export renewable hydrogen from Gladstone in Queensland, will undergo the federal environmental assessment as part of its progress towards securing environmental and planning approval.

Documents lodged with the federal government show the development would include facilities for the production of  renewable hydrogen using electrolysis, as well as the production of renewable nitrogen and up to 5,000 tonnes per day of renewable ammonia.

Production will occur at a proposed precinct in Yarwun, with an additional export precinct being created at Fisherman’s Landing. The project expects to commence its first operations in early 2024.

The project has been listed by the federal environment department as a “controlled action”, a standard process that will see the development assessed under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

The listing reflects the scale of the project, and its location, with the department set to assess the project’s potential impact on heritage, and ecological systems.

Planning documents show the project will involve the clearing of around 126 hectares of remnant vegetation to make way for the production facility, including the construction of a new high voltage grid connection, and onsite storage facilities for hydrogen, nitrogen and ammonia.

The project is one of a number of green hydrogen export projects under active development in the Gladstone region.

The Queensland government owned Stanwell Corporation is leading an Australian-Japanese consortium looking to build a 3GW hydrogen production facility at Aldoga, just outside Gladstone.

Fortescue Future Industries has also struck a cooperative agreement with the Queensland government to develop two green hydrogen developments in Gladstone. This includes a massive new electrolyser factory.

CEO of The Hydrogen Utility, Attilio Pigneri, told RenewEconomy that the decision marks the first time that a major hydrogen export project has progressed to the assessment stage of the environmental approval project.

An earlier project, the Asian Renewable Energy Hub being developed by a consortium led by CWP Global, had its application for environmental approvals rejected on the basis that it was “clearly unacceptable”.

The Asian Renewable Energy Hub intends to lodge a fresh application for approvals to produce an export green ammonia from a site in the Western Australian Pilbara region.