Australia warms to green hydrogen amid Japanese demand
27/05/2021 10:19
* Stanwell targets 3 GW of electrolyser capacity by 2030
* Norway's Yara targets 1 GW of electrolyser capacity by
2028
* Costs, shipping pose hurdles
By Sonali Paul
MELBOURNE, May 27 (Reuters) - Australia could supply Japan
with one million tonnes of "green" hydrogen a year by 2030,
project developers predict, if costs can be lowered sharply and
transport challenges overcome.
Momentum is building for such projects as businesses look to
take advantage of Australia's vast land area and abundant
sunshine and wind to power electrolysers, split water and make
hydrogen without recourse to climate-harming fossil fuels.
The Australian government says the industry could add A$11
billion to the economy by 2050 and potentially as much as A$26
billion, depending on how quickly global demand grows.
"The green hydrogen opportunity is real and it's possibly
closer than we think," said Stephen Quilter, executive general
manager strategy and energy futures at Queensland state-owned
Stanwell Corp.
Stanwell is working with Japan's biggest hydrogen supplier,
Iwatani Corp 8088.T on a project that aims to start shipping
liquid green hydrogen to Japan in 2026.
Their goal is to scale up to 280,000 tonnes a year by 2030,
using 3 gigawatts (GW) of electrolyser capacity.
The partners are in talks to bring in two other power
utilities, a trading house and shipping expertise in Japan, and
an Australian gas major, Quilter said at the Australian Energy
Week conference on Wednesday. He did not name the other
companies that might be involved.
In Western Australia, Norway's Yara International SA
YAR.OL and France's Engie SA ENGIE.PA this month won support
from the government for a project to produce ammonia from green
hydrogen. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2MR0YT
They plan to start producing up to 625 tonnes of green
hydrogen and 3,700 tonnes of green ammonia a year in 2023 with a
10 megawatt electrolyser. By 2028, they aim to scale up to 1 GW
of electrolyser capacity.
At the same time Yara is working with Japanese power joint
venture JERA to supply green ammonia for power plants.
While enthusiasm is growing for hydrogen, there are big
hurdles to making it competitive with fossil fuels.
Electrolyser costs need to drop by 80% to 90% and renewable
energy costs need to halve to reach the government's target of
"H2 under A$2" per kilogram, said Australian Renewable Energy
Agency Chief Executive Darren Miller.
Shipping super-chilled hydrogen also poses major technical
hurdles. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N2II1O2
"The world has a long way to go where we can prove up a
viable liquid hydrogen transport system," said Jeremy Stone, a
director of Japan's Electric Power Development Co (J-Power),
which is producing hydrogen from brown coal and is set to ship
the world's first cargo of liquid hydrogen from Australia to
Japan this year. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2N60YG
(Reporting by Sonali Paul. Editing by Mark Potter)
((Sonali.Paul@thomsonreuters.com; +61 407 119 523;))