Queensland solar farm locks in supply deal for Australia’s biggest green hydrogen project

The government owned Stanwell Corp has signed a long term off-take agreement for the proposed Aldoga solar farm, in the second major solar supply deal for a large green hydrogen project in Queensland this month.

Stanwell said in a statement on Wednesday that the 380 MW Aldoga solar farm near Gladstone in Queensland will be used to supply its proposed Central Queensland Hydrogen project, said to be the biggest green hydrogen project in Australia.

Aldoga is owned by Spanish renewable energy developer Acciona Energia, which is also building the MacIntyre wind project in the south of the state, which at 1GW will be the biggest in the country, at least for a while.

The 15-year supply deal with Stanwell will be for the entire output of the solar farm, which is to begin construction in coming months and is due to be complete by the end nov 2025.

Earlier this month, Fortescue signed a major off-take agreements with Genex Power for a 337 MW component of the proposed Bulli Creek solar farm to supply green power to its own green hydrogen and green ammonia project at Gibson Island.

That project is expected to grow to a 550 MW green hydrogen electrolyser, but the CQ-H2 project could be even bigger.

Stanwell says it will be the biggest green hydrogen project in Australia. Set to be built out in phases, a first phase will install up to 640MW of electrolysers capable of producing up to 200 tonnes of green hydrogen per day by 2028.

By 2030, however, the Queensland government hopes the project will be capable of expanding to include 2.24GW of electrolysers producing up to 800 tonnes of green hydrogen per day.

Once operational, the CQ-H2 project will aim to supply renewable hydrogen to customers in Japan and Singapore, as well as large domestic customers in Central Queensland.

The Aldoga solar farm will be built adjacent to the proposed hydrogen production facility site for the CQ-H2 project.

“Stanwell has set out an ambitious strategy for what we will achieve as a business between now and 2035 and a key component of our strategy is to drive the development of Queensland’s hydrogen industry,” said Michael O’Rourke, CEO of Stanwell.

“Our agreement with Acciona to secure the output of the Aldoga solar farm is a key milestone for us, as the Central Queensland Hydrogen project undertakes its front-end engineering design study and progresses to final investment decision.”

Its partners in the CQ-H2 project include Iwatani Corporation, Kansai Electric Power Company, Marubeni, and Keppel Infrastructure.

Acciona Energy managing director Brett Wickham said Queensland is one of the company’s preferred destinations, given its “highly skilled workforce, good regulatory processes” and a “well thought out” Energy and Jobs Plan.”

“Queensland’s energy transition is well underway,” Wickham said in a statement. “With 100% of the power from Acciona Energia’s Aldoga Solar Farm supplied to Stanwell we’re helping to reduce power prices and carbon emissions across the sunshine state.”