Massive Ord River solar-hydro project aims to be first to market with green ammonia

A massive green hydrogen project based around the existing Ord Hydro project and a new giga-scale solar project aims to be the first in Australia to export green ammonia at scale.

The East Kimberley Clean Energy Project will initially add a 900MW solar project to the existing hydro power and port facilities to become what it says will be Australia’s first truly 100 per cent renewable energy hydrogen and ammonia production hub.

The $3 billion project aims to begin production in 2028, targeting 50,000 tonnes of green hydrogen and 250,000 tonnes per annum of green ammonia, most likely for export to north Asia customers.

The project is being led by advisory and investment group Pollination, and claims to have struck a “world-first deal” with the traditional landowners, including MG Corporation, the Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation and the Kimberley Land Council.

“This project represents a just, ambitious and achievable vision for Australia’s clean energy future,” says Rob Grant, the head of projects at Pollination who also worked on the original Ord Hydro scheme during his time at Pacific Hydro.

“It leverages natural advantages and existing energy and port infrastructure already in place in the East Kimberley region to create a major new clean energy export hub that will help Australia and our region decarbonise, grow new industries and ensure transitional owners and local residents are shareholders, not just stakeholders, in the benefits.”

The project has been unveiled on the first day of the Australian Clean Energy Summit in Sydney, and comes just one day after the unveiling of another massive 3GW renewable project in the Pilbara led by the Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) and international renewables developer Acen Corporation.

Both deals offer the local landowners significant equity stakes in the planned projects. Balangarra’s Cissy Gore-Birch says this is hugely important given the size and nature of the green hydrogen projects proposed around the country.

“This is an opportunity where we can actually showcase that we are able to work together on a shared project and an agreement to be able to look at the bigger outcomes,” Gore-Birch told RenewEconomy in the latest episode of RenewEconomy’s Energy Insiders podcast.

“This is not only just for traditional owners, but I guess for the rest of the nation and the rest of the world, but the things that we’re thinking about is really bettering the lives of our people who really haven’t benefited in the past through these big projects around Australia.”

Grant, on the same podcast, told RenewEconomy that it is clear that the clean energy transformation cannot be delivered without a different way of engagement and partnership with First Nations groups, then has historically been done through the resources sector.

“They hold the key really for us to be able to not only help in the decarbonisation of the Australian economy, but by bringing their land, country and culture to, to helping the rest of the world as well as we take advantage of the significant competitive advantage Australia has in the low cost production of renewables.”

The Ord hydro scheme was built to supply the local towns of Wyndham and Kununurra and the Argyle diamond mine, which is now closed, freeing up more than 20GW of spare capacity. Grant says the plan is to use this baseload renewable capacity to power an ammonia production facility in Wyndam.

A 900MW solar farm – which would be the biggest in Australia if built now – would be built on MG Corporation land near Kununurra, along with a 50,000 tonne per annum hydrogen production facility.

It will use electrolysis to convert fresh water from Lake Arygle into green hydrogen, and then transport the product via a new 120km pipeline to the port of Wyndham.

“The main requirements for green hydrogen production are clean water, sunlight and renewable energy sources, and all are abundantly available in this project,” Grant said in a statement.

The project will be planned, created and managed by the Aboriginal Clean Energy (ACE) partnership, in which equal shares are held by MG Corp, the Kimberley Land Council, Balangarra Ventures, and Pollination.

The partnership allows for an integrated development process for heritage, native title, and environmental and engineering approvals.

“The result is a fairer and more use approach compared to how resource projects have traditionally been developed,” the partners said. “It is also one that significantly reduced project development risk and shortens the project’s development timescale.