INPEX has spilled oil into Darwin Harbour, exposed offshore workers to dangerous mercury, and been prosecuted for under-reporting toxic emissions by more than 100-fold, all in the past 12 months.
Australia's largest renewable energy project has been nearly halved, and the clean electricity will no longer be used to produce ammonia from green hydrogen.
The Australian Renewable Energy Hub was to incorporate 26 gigawatts of wind and solar power generation over 6,500 square kilometres of WA's North West to make 10 million tonnes of green ammonia a year, at a cost of about $50 billion.
Plans to produce hydrogen from water using renewable electricity and then use that hydrogen to make ammonia have been dropped just months after the Federal Government backed further development with a $22 million grant.
On Wednesday, WA's environmental watchdog, the EPA, posted that it had terminated its assessment of the project at the request of the proponents, InterContinental Energy (ICE) and CWP Global.
An ICE spokeswoman said the project's initial phases would continue under an earlier approval for a 15-gigawatt power project.
She said the now-dumped referral "proposed a number of additional elements, including desalination and green hydrogen and ammonia production infrastructure, alternative export arrangements, an expanded solar footprint and a company town."
Hub location between Port Hedland and Broome. Source: AREH
"ICE has requested termination of that unassessed referral as an administrative clean-up, as no assessment of those proposed revisions is being progressed under that referral," she said.
The 15-gigawatt plan lodged with the EPA in 2018 and approved by the WA Government in 2020 envisages exporting power to Indonesia and Singapore via subsea cable.
However, Boiling Cold understands the target market is now miners in the Pilbara. Any attempt to make low-emissioms green iron in the Pilbara will likely need vast amounts of power to either use directly, or to make green hydrogen on site.
For over a decade ICE and CWP Global have sought ways to monetise their exclusive rights to develop renewable energy in the project area.
In that time blue chip partners Vestas, Macquarie and BP have come and gone, and the market has switched from power to South East Asia, then exporting green ammonia, and now clean power to the Pilbara (see timeline below).
The news of AREH moving away from hydrogen production comes days after Woodside canned its commitment to invest $US5 billion in clean energy by 2030. The move will further reduce the likelihood of it building its PerthH2 plant to export lower-carbon blue hydrogen.
Woodside did invest $US2.35 billion in the Beaumont blue ammonia project in Texas. However, the future of the investment to produce lower-carbon blue ammonia by using carbon storage is now under review.
In January, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) backed the AREH project with $22 million towards a $95 million study focused on renewable hydrogen production in the Pilbara.
Boiling Cold asked ICE and ARENA about the future of the government grant and is yet to receive responses.
Timeline of an ever expanding green dream
2014 - Planning begins
2016 - WA Government awards exclusive rights to develop a renewable energy project over a vast area between Port Hedland and Broome.
2017 - InterContinental Energy, CWP and wind turbine manufacturer Vestas launch the Asian Renewable Energy Hub to supply five gigawatts of wind and solar electrical power to Indonesia through subsea cables at a cost of $13 billion. A final investment decision (FID) for the Asian Renewable Energy Hub was planned for 2020.
2018 - Planned capacity increased to 11 gigawatts to provide power to the Pilbara as well as Indonesia. Macquarie joined as an investor at a cost of $22 billion. FID planned for 2021.
May 2020 - WA EPA approves$22 billion plans for 15 gigawatts of generation. FID planned for 2025.
October 2020 - AREH switches to 26 gigawatts of renewable generation to produce 10 million tonnes a year of green ammonia for export at a cost of $50 billion. Project to span 6,500 square kilometres. FID still planned for 2025. Revised proposal submitted to the WA EPA.
2022 - BP buys a 40 per cent stake in AREH and assumes operatorship. Vestas no longer involved. Project renamed the Australian Renewable Energy Hub.
I worked in oil & gas in commercial and engineering roles for 20 years. Since 2016, I have written for The West Australian, WAtoday, The Guardian and Boiling Cold, winning five WA Media Awards.
The shutdown of the Yara Pilbara plant comes as a quarter of global trade in ammonia, used for urea fertiliser and mining explosives, is blocked by war.
Canadian firm Vermilion judged the chance of the December spill as "rare" - the same probability it claims for seven planned exploration wells that could affect anywhere along the Pilbara coast.
South West WA's power grid reached a record 91 per cent peak renewable energy share in December - driven by 1,225 MW of new battery storage - while wholesale power prices fell 13 per cent and carbon emissions dropped 15 per cent as coal and gas generation declined.
Peter Milne
