HYDROGEN DEVELOPMENTS The hydrogen industry continues to garner support from investors and innovators and is generating significant interest the world over. Here we look at some of the local advances. WORLD FIRST GREEN HYDROGEN PLANT
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Australia based Yara which supplies a not insignificant five per cent of the world’s ammonia is destined to become the world’s first industrial-scale renewable ammonia production plant. The world-leading fertiliser company is joining forces with Engie, a global low-carbon energy and services group, to build the renewable ammonia plant that has received an ARENA grant of $42.5 million and is scheduled for completion and to commence production in 2023. The plant on the site of the existing Yara Pilbara ammonia plant will include a 10MW electrolyser, on-site PV panels and a battery storage system enabling off-grid operation. It is slated to produce up to 625 tons of renewable hydrogen and turn this into 3,700 tons of renewable ammonia per year enabling
customers to decarbonise emissions from power generation, shipping, fertiliser or mining explosives. This initial phase would be key to enable the facility to become the ‘Pilbara Hydrogen Hub’, building on the existing export infrastructure. Yara Pilbara General Manager Laurent Trost said, “Renewable hydrogen can decarbonise ammonia production, and renewable ammonia can serve as renewable feedstock for a variety of industrial uses, and even more importantly, renewable ammonia is one of the world’s most promising fuels for green power generation and shipping.” According to SEC’s Wayne Smith Yara is keen to work with Hydrogen Australia on its Zero Carbon certification scheme and “Absolutely think we are on the right path with certification. The Pilbara project could well be one of Hydrogen Australia’s first pilot projects.”
Yara’s green hydrogen project in the Pilbara will be the second project to be certified under the Zero Carbon Certification Scheme
TECTONIC SHIFT
According to BloombergNEF green hydrogen made from solar or wind electricity is ramping up to be more cost competitive than ‘blue’ hydrogen production facilities that use fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage. The global analyst suggests the situation should reverse by 2030, including in countries such as the US with its with cheap gas and Japan and South Korea whose renewable power is more costly. The dominant ‘gray’ hydrogen which is generated from fossil fuels without carbon capture and storage could also cost more than green hydrogen by 2030 in the majority of the countries modelled by BNEF. This, they say will “unleash a tectonic shift in the hydrogen market” and render Shell’s blue hydrogen plants due for completion closer to 2030 uncompetitive against green hydrogen. The plummeting cost of solar power will hasten the trajectory so much so that “By 2030, it will make little economic sense to build blue hydrogen production facilities in most countries, unless space constraints are an issue for renewables.” By 2050, the cost of producing hydrogen from renewable electricity should fall by up to 85 per cent from today’s price, BNEF predicts, with costs below the much-stated holy grail of USD$1/kg in most international markets.
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Further, green hydrogen is on track to be cheaper than natural gas by 2050 in 15 of the 28 markets modelled, thus “completely rewrite the energy map”. Data suggests at least 33 per cent of the world economy could be powered by clean energy for “not a cent more than it pays for fossil fuels”. IHS Markit believes green hydrogen could be cost competitive by 2030 and that until then government subsidies would be required to support business models. Costs: According to the International Energy Agency, green hydrogen from onshore wind and solar costs $US2.50-6/kg; grey hydrogen is currently available at $US1-3/kg; and using CCS to generate blue hydrogen would add at least $US0.50/kg.
