Strategic Alliances

Geelong Port, one of Australia’s major ports southwest of Melbourne, today announced it will invest $100 million to establish a hydrogen hub in partnership with biomass gasification outfit CAC-H2.

Two Australian companies, hydrogen fuel cell startup H2X and emerging renewables developer Thales New Energy, have signed an agreement with a Malaysian state-owned corporation to develop a 1.3 GW hydrogen export facility powered by hydroelectricity in the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

In this week’s edition of pv magazine’s Hydrogen Stream, Australian projects took centre stage including Woodside announcing it had secured land for its H2TAS project, an MoU signed between Perth-based metals manufacturing company Unique Metals and Energy consultancy Xodus, as well as ARENA’s funding for Sun Metals zinc refinery in Townsville.

Fotowatio Renewable Ventures’ Australian platform has shifted its attentions to across the ditch, teaming with one of New Zealand’s largest energy providers in a joint venture which will develop up to 500 MW of solar PV capacity over the next five years.

Sydney-based zinc-bromide battery technology company Gelion will deliver 100 MWh of energy storage to Mayur Renewables for its clean energy projects in Papua New Guinea under a new deal.

Aviation H2 today it announced it has appointed a team of engineers to fast-track its ambitions of building Australia’s first hydrogen-fuelled aeroplane. The company is, however, rather enigmatic, without a website and wholly owned by Liberty Energy Capital, which itself falls into rabbit hole of ownerships. The plan comes on the same day one of Australia’s biggest renewable hydrogen players, Fortescue Future Industries, announced it’s joined forced with Los Angeles-based Universal Hydrogen to enter the aviation space.

Brett Redman, the former CEO of Australian energy utility AGL has been named as the new chief executive officer at electricity network operator Transgrid.

In the coming weeks, Western Australian mining-cum-materials recovery company Neometals will begin testing at its newly commissioned battery recycling demonstration plant in Hichenbach, Germany, the product of a joint venture with SMS Group. The Primobius facility, as it’s named, has already garnered considerable attention and is a finalist in 2022’s prestigious German Sustainability Award. “We want Primobius to be the preeminent recycler in the world,” the company’s managing director, Chris Reed, told pv magazine Australia.

Australian natural gas and electricity company, APA Group, is set to build a 88 MW solar farm at Mica Creek in Mount Isa, central Queensland. The news just as APA was confirmed to have lost its bidding war for Victorian transmission network AusNet.

It may just be an MOU, and there are no timeframes attached, but the agreement between two major emitters to continue and prioritise their development of green-processes for producing steel from iron ore bodes well for Australian manufacturing strength and marketability.