Western Australia’s conventional homeowners will associate with advisory agency Pollination to develop what might be Australia’s largest photo voltaic farm. The transfer is a part of plans to create a gigawatt-scale inexperienced hydrogen and ammonia undertaking within the northwestern a part of the nation.
From pv journal Australia
Australian clear vitality investor Pollination has revealed it’s going to construct a 900 MW photo voltaic farm as a part of the proposed AUD 3 billion ($2.05 billion) East Kimberley Clear Vitality Undertaking. It says the set up will likely be Australia’s first 100% renewable vitality hydrogen and ammonia manufacturing hub.
The undertaking, which is being developed close to the city of Kununurra, is anticipated to start out operations in 2028. It’ll goal 50,000 tons of inexperienced hydrogen and 250,000 tons of inexperienced ammonia per yr for the home and export markets.
The East Kimberley Clear Vitality Undertaking will likely be deliberate, developed and managed by the Aboriginal Clear Vitality (ACE) partnership, a brand new firm by which equal shares are held by the normal homeowners of the land the place the undertaking will likely be constructed.
MG Corp., representing the Miriuwung and Gajerron folks, and Balarangra Aboriginal Corp. every has a 25% stake in ACE, in addition to the Kimberley Land Council and Pollination. Rob Grant, head of initiatives at Pollination, mentioned the “first-of-its-kind partnership” supplies a mannequin for infrastructure initiatives in Australia that can guarantee conventional homeowners profit from scale and tempo of transition to renewable vitality.
“This undertaking represents an affordable, bold and achievable imaginative and prescient for Australia’s clear vitality future,” he mentioned. “It makes use of the pure benefits and the prevailing vitality and port infrastructure already in place within the East Kimberley area to create an essential new clear vitality export hub that can assist Australia and our area to decarbonize, develop new industries and be certain that transition homeowners and native residents are shareholders, not simply stakeholders, in the advantages.”
Grant mentioned that the involvement of conventional proprietor teams instantly within the undertaking additionally provides enticing prospects to buyers by mitigating the dangers related to land use agreements and approvals.
The primary part of the undertaking will embody the development of a 900 MW photo voltaic farm – greater than double the dimensions of the nation’s largest to date constructed – and a 50,000 ton per yr inexperienced hydrogen plant by MG Corp. freehold land close to Kununurra.
The ensuing photo voltaic vitality will likely be mixed with recent water from Lake Kununurra and hydro vitality from the prevailing Ord Hydro Energy Plant on Lake Argyle to provide inexperienced hydrogen that will likely be transported by a brand new pipeline to an “export prepared” port in Wyndham. There it will likely be transformed into inexperienced ammonia. Round 250,000 tons of inexperienced ammonia is produced yearly for the home and export markets within the fertilizer and explosives sectors.
Whereas undertaking feasibility and funding are pending, development is anticipated to start in late 2025, with hydrogen manufacturing to start in late 2028. Grant mentioned scoping research have been accomplished to find out the idea of undertaking, and feasibility research will start, together with 12 months of environmental, engineering and approval work.
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