Due to a lack of state government support, Australian mineral exploration company Province Resources has shelved its multi-gigawatt solar and wind-powered green hydrogen project in Western Australia, HyEnergy.
Revealed in 2021, the project, which was set to be developed in the Gascoyne region of Western Australia and feature 1GW of solar PV and wind energy, was hoping to produce around 60,000 tonnes of green hydrogen or up to 300,000 tonnes of green ammonia. This would’ve supported Australia’s ambition to become a major global exporter of green hydrogen in the future, owing to its vast solar PV resources.
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The company progressed with the HyEnergy project for three years and secured notable milestones. This includes all workstreams directly under its control, such as scoping studies, pre-feasibility studies, site selection studies, land agreements, environmental studies, and more.
During this time, the company has continuously communicated with all relevant departments and ministers, expecting the Western Australian government to provide a “timely and appropriate land tenure for the project”.
However, Province said in a statement that the government has “failed to offer tenure for the project on terms which would be acceptable to Province and potential project partners, or in the best interests of the company’s shareholders”.
The state government’s prolonged deliberation over the appropriate tenure for the HyEnergy project has caused the initial opportunity to advance the project to be missed, Province said. As a result, these delays have significantly reduced investor interest in the sector, leading many companies to postpone their plans to develop their green energy projects.
Despite the shelving of the project, the company still believes the Gascoyne region has the “best complementary wind and solar resources available at gigawatt scale” and that the close proximity to the coast could help support a booming international export trade.
Province CEO and managing director, David Frances confirmed it would now return to its primary focus on minerals exploration and development but will maintain HyEnergy in a state of readiness for the next cycle of its development.
Frances added: “It is disappointing that the state government would be the sole stakeholder who was not supportive of the project. This is in direct contrast with the government’s public statements of support for the industry.”
Australia’s green hydrogen ambitions
Given the current installed solar capacity across Australia, which, according to the Australian PV Institute, hit 34.2GW at the end of 2023, the technology has been positioned as a key supplier of renewable energy to produce green hydrogen. This is further supported given that deployment figures for solar PV do not seem to be slowing down.
Several key developments have occurred in recent years aided by the right incentives for international investment in the country’s green hydrogen market. For instance, in 2022, energy major BP confirmed it would acquire a 40.5% stake in and become the operator of a green hydrogen project in Western Australia that could feature up to 26GW of solar and wind when complete.
In more recent times, the Aboriginal Clean Energy Partnership reached agreements in July 2023 that set the organisation up to develop a green hydrogen production facility in Western Australia powered by a 900MW solar PV plant.
