Alcoa chief executive Bill Oplinger told Wall Street the US aluminium specialist could take strong action to boost profits from alumina, most of which it refines in Western Australia.
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.
The green light for Black Mountain Energy comes just months after Federal experts said its environmental risk assessment was "limited and disjointed" and reached "largely unsupported" conclusions.
Hydrogen was once sold as a universal climate fix — a clean, green wonder fuel for cars, homes, power grids and even global export - but reality has cooled that buzz.
Australia's largest export has a problem - its low grade and high impurities make it unsuitable for producing low emissions iron and steel with current technology
Australia will lose thousands of jobs to rival resource-rich economies if the federal government fails to kickstart the nascent green iron industry, experts warn.
In every type of steelmaking, the challenge of using hydrogen to cut emissions is different but the long term possibilities for Australia are enormous.
Green steel made with renewable hydrogen could produce 25,000 Australian jobs but the Pilbara's iron ore would be shipped east to avoid high labour costs.
