Iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest has unveiled plans to build a massive green energy manufacturing centre in central Queensland, focusing initially on hydrogen electrolysers before also moving on to wind turbine equipment, solar PV cells, and electrical cabling.
The announcement – made by Fortescue Future Industries and the Queensland state government ton Sunday – thrusts Australia into the new era of green industry manufacturing and energy production centres, and it’s no accident that it will be located around Gladstone, the hub of that state’s coal and LNG industries.
Forrest’s plans are – as usual – extremely ambitious. The six-stage project will start with a plan to establish Australia’s first multi-gigawatt-scale electrolyser factory, with an initial capacity of 2 gigawatts (GW) per annum – more than doubling current global production.
This will provide hundreds of jobs in both construction and over the project lifetime, but thousands more could be created as the centre expands into the manufacture of wind turbines, solar PV cells and other infrastructure, helping to transform regional Australia through green industries.
“FFI’s goal is to become the world’s leading, integrated, fully renewable energy and green products company, powering the Australian economy and creating jobs for Australia as we transition away from fossil fuels,” CEO Julie Shuttleworth said in a statement.
“Our manufacturing arm, starting with electrolysers and expanding to all other required green industry products, will herald great potential for green manufacturing and employment in regional Australia.”
The massive and ground-breaking investment by one of the Australia’s richest people contrasts vividly with the anti-green industry and anti-renewable rhetoric of the federal Nationals, particularly those located in Queensland who seem interested only in protecting the coal industry.
But there is a major change sweeping Australia’s boardrooms, with even the Business Council of Australia backflipping from its claims that an ambitious climate target would “economy wrecking”, to now proposing a 50 per cent emissions cut by 2030 so Australia will not be left behind the rest of the world.
FFI’s Shuttleworth said she expected Gladstone will become an epicentre for Queensland’s green hydrogen ambitions, building on its skilled workforce,”its great foresight in industrial master-planning, a world class port, and a constructive and supportive State Government.”
Subject to customer demand, the total investment could be up to or in excess of AU$1 billion as orders firm for electrolysers and other green industry equipment. The initial electrolyser investment is expected to be up to AU$114 million, with the first electrolysers scheduled for production in early 2023.
FFI itself will be the biggest initial customer, presumably to kick start its own hugely ambitious green hydrogen plans. Forrest has declared that he wants to build more than 100GW of renewable hydrogen capacity by 2030. He says the global renewable hydrogen market could be worth $16 trillion by 2050.
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