THE STORY IN TODAY'S FIN REV THAT HAS EVERYONE EXCITED INCLUDING PRL.
The West Australian government is set to pushthrough changes to land tenure laws so Andrew Forrest and others can turnhundreds of thousands of hectares covered by cattle stations into mega solar and wind farms tosupport green hydrogen production.
The changes will affect pastoral leases that arehome to cattle stations such as Dr Forrest’s beloved Minderoo, where land useis effectively limited to the grazing of livestock, and clear the way forrenewables projects more than half the size of Sydney.
Dr Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group has told the WA government it wants to build vast solar and wind farms on pastoral land as part of its ambitions to become a major producer and exporter of green hydrogen and green steel.
Fortescue Metals Group founder and chairman AndrewForrest declined to answer questions on whether he intended to use his ownstations for vast wind and solar farms.
Pastoral leases cover about 90 million hectares, or36 per cent, of WA, where the Forrest family owns a string of cattle stationsspread across 1.5 million hectares.
Dr Forrest and Fortescue declined to answerquestions on whether he intended to use his stations – including Minderoo,which he has fought to protect from mining – for vast wind and solar farms.
In addition to Minderoo Station, Dr Forrest ownsUrala Station on the Pilbara coast as well as Uaroo and Natutarra stationsfurther inland. He also owns Brickhouse and Minilya stations on the Gascoynecoast.
Most of the WA pastoral estate is covered by nativetitle determinations and any changes in tenure to clear the way for renewableenergy projects will require Dr Forrest and others to strike Indigenous landuse agreements with the traditional owners.
WA’s Labor government, re-elected this month with amassive majority in both houses of Parliament, will also consider legislatingthat all gas pipelines and networks in the state must carry 10 per cent ofrenewable hydrogen by 2030.
The $US36 billion ($47 billion)Asian Renewable Energy Hub project, aimed at producing green hydrogen and ammonia on the WA coast between Port Hedland and Broome, covers almost 670,000 hectares. Its international backers plan to use more than 1700 giant wind turbines and a sea of solar panels to generate some 26 gigawatts of power.
WA hydrogen industry minister Alannah MacTiernansaid Dr Forrest and Fortescue had aspirations for projects around the samesize, if not larger, and had been in talks with the government about landtenure changes.
“We’ve had discussions with Andrew on that and wehave on-going discussions on that and on what would be the appropriate landtenure arrangements,” she said.
“There are other people that have got interest inpastoral assets as well that are having similar conversations.
“Part of our thinking at the moment is it may be weneed to legislate a mechanism whereby land can be taken out of the pastoralestate and put into a tenure that is appropriate for large-scale hydrogenproduction.”
There have been several failed attempts to re-writeland tenure laws around WA pastoral leases over the years, but Ms MacTiernanindicated the government would have no trouble making changes after itslandslide election win.
The pastoral leases being targeted by the backersof big green hydrogen projects are generally close to the coast because theirproduction plants include desalination capability.
In addition to the Fortescue and Asian RenewableEnergy Hub projects, WA has received 65 expressions of interest in hydrogenproduction at Oakajee – once touted as home to a $9 billion deep water iron oreport on the Mid-West coast.
The government said about a dozen expressions ofinterest had come from international energy “super majors”.
The WA government wants Oakajee, where native titleissues have been resolved, developed sooner rather than later, but calculatesthat even using a 4000-hectare buffer for wind turbines and solar panels thereis only enough land to generate about 1.75 gigawatts. Oakajee is surrounded byvaluable freehold farmland.
Ms MacTiernan noted that the pastoral estatestarted to kick in around Kalbarri to the north of Oakajee, and that nearbyMurchison House Station was already home to a green hydrogen project thatincluded plans to develop a 5000 megawatt solar and wind farm using Siemenstechnology.
BP is studying the feasibility of a renewablehydrogen and ammonia production facility at Geraldton to the south as part ofabout 20 hydrogen projects either under consideration or underway in WA.
Others include Norwegian group Yara’s green ammoniaproject in Pilbara.
Ms MacTiernan said WA wanted to use its land, vastcoastline, sun and wind to dominate Australian hydrogen production in the sameway it had in LNG.
She said the state could legislate to achieve thetarget of 10 per cent of renewable hydrogen in gas pipelines and networks by2030 because it was important to create demand to kick start the industry.
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