A RENEWABLE energy project in the Pilbara has its sights set on expansion, just weeks after getting approval for the initial first stage of its design.
The Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH) is a large-scale, clean energy project which would use wind and solar energy to generate clean nitricity and export it in chemical form by converting it to hydrogen and then to ammonia, to load onto ships and carry to global markets.
AREH was granted approval by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) earlier this month for a 15 gigawatt solar and wind farm between Port Hedland and Broome.
Upon receiving that approval, AREH submitted a further application to expand the project to 26GW.
Of that 26GW, the majority would be reserved for export purposes, however 3GW of the generation capacity has been committed to the Pilbara, for existing and future energy users.
AREH development manager Andrew Dickson said ammonia was currently mostly produced from fossil fuels and was mainly used for fertilisers and explosives.
"However, completely new markets are opening up for ammonia, mainly as a fuel and if the ammonia is produced from renewables it is a way to have decarbonisation," Mr Dickson said.
"The world is hungry for clean energy, with green hydrogen and ammonia providing a way to export that energy in chemical form.
"We're essentially creating a new export industry that Western Australia is ideally placed to be a part of."
Pilbara Development Commission (PDC) chief executive officer Terry Hill said the Pilbara had one of the highest levels of direct solar irradiance on the planet.
"It was identified by the International Energy Agency' s Task 8 Committee as one of the top six locations in the world to develop large-scale solar farms," Mr Hill said.
"The Pilbara offers exceptional solar resources, drawing an average 11 hours of sunlight a day.
"It is also blessed with significant night-time wind, which combined with solar, makes it possible to achieve energy generation for 75 per cent of a 24-hour window; a level sufficient to make renewable electricity generated here globally competitive."
The approval for the initial design by the EPA follows the WA Recovery Plan initiatives to bring forward the Western Australian Renewable Hydrogen Strategy goals from 2040 to 2030, and the State government's $22 million investment in developing WA's hydrogen industry.
Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan said the project could transform the Pilbara and be a major contributor to global efforts to decarbonise the economy.
"The project partners have extensive experience developing wind and solar farms globally, and the environmental approval is a major step forward," Ms MacTiernan said.
"This development will demonstrate Western Australia's credentials as a world-class investment destination for green energy generation, including the production of exportable commodities, like green hydrogen and ammonia, and green steel manufacturing.
"It will put Western Australia on the map as a major contributor to lowering global carbon emissions."
The AREH has been in the works for more than five years and initially involved a 5GW wind and solar site to send power to Indonesia via subsea cables.
Since then the cable plan has been dropped and the project has expanded to include a solar capacity of 10.8 GW in 18 arrays, plus 1743 wind turbines with a maximum ground to tip height of 290 metres and a 9.9 million tonnes a year ammonia facility.
That facility will include a water desalination plant, electrolysers to produce hydrogen, hydrogen storage, units to extract nitrogen from the air, and a plant to combine the hydrogen and nitrogen to make ammonia.
In regards to making the decision to abandon the plans for subsea cables, Mr Dickson said they figured it made more sense to pivot to hydrogen and ammonia in chemical form as it opened up global markets, rather than just one or two.
"The demand for clean energy in chemical form is going to grow in the coming years, so that enables us to scale up the project," he said.
"We were constrained by the cables and now that we're not using them, we're unconstrained and can generate a lot more to turn into chemicals to load onto ships."
The site planned for the project is located about 30km inland from 80 Mile Beach and was chosen as it is sunny during the day and incredibly windy at night.
The land that the project is being developed on has determined exclusive native title and the Nyangumarta people are the traditional owners.
The AREH has been engaging with the traditional owners since project conception and is currently negotiating an indigenous land use agreement.
The project is spread over 6500 square kilometres and includes rows of wind turbines, spaced about 5km apart, with solar panels interspersed within the rows.
The power from both would go via overhead cables to a centralised area to turn into chemical form, with buried pipelines which go 20km offshore taking the chemical to loading towers or buoys to load the liquid ammonia onto ships.
The plan is to also construct new transmission lines from the site into the Pilbara, initially to Port Hedland, to enable energy intensive industries to use that energy and to allow other energy users to connect to it.
"That could be useful for electrification of heavy transport particularly on the mines, or for production of hydrogen fuel as a replacement for diesel fuel," Mr Dickson said.
"Our energy will be cheap and clean, much cheaper than current energy costs in the Pilbara, and we've committed the 3GW to the Pilbara because we want to share the benefits with the region as well as exporting to other markets.
"However, going to Port Hedland really depends on the local market interest in that energy and the ability to develop the transmission lines."
The AREH is an entirely new export industry, something which will be critical to WA in coming years.
"As other extractive industries decline in coming decades, the State needs new export revenues and new economic growth," Mr Dickson said.
"Our project will be a new export industry, there will be thousands of jobs both during construction and ongoing, plus our energy can benefit all energy users in the Pilbara by lowering the cost of energy and decarbonisation."
It is estimated up to 5000 direct construction jobs will be created during the 10-year project construction period, with 3000 direct jobs created for the 50-plus year operational period.
Mr Hill said the PDC had a strong focus on diversifying the region's economy through supporting new industries.
"A heavy reliance on resource exports leaves the regional economy exposed to commodity price fluctuations," Mr Hill said.
"As well as a strong diversified economy, the commission's vision for the Pilbara includes vibrant and sustainable communities - being able to offer job opportunities in diverse industries helps to achieve this."
The AREH is being developed by a consortium of four companies including InterContinental Energy (46pc), CWP Energy Asia (44pc), Pathway Investments (7pc) and Vestas (3pc).
With a new application having been submitted to the EPA, the consortium expects the approval to take a couple of years and is aiming for a final investment decision in 2025.
A phase to develop energy locally in the Pilbara could be earlier than 2025 and it is anticipated the construction will be completed in phases over a period of eight to 10 years.
