Germany’s RWE Supply & Trading, Essen, and Australian hydrogen project developer The Hydrogen Utility Pty Ltd (H2U), Adelaide, said on April 15 they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to join forces to develop hydrogen trading between Australia and Germany.
The two companies plan to bring green hydrogen produced in Australia to Europe. This is in line with the objective of HySupply, a 24-month German-Australian feasibility study that was started in December 2020 by the German Academy of Science and Engineering and the Federation of German Industries.
RWE said a planned LNG terminal in Brunsbüttel, Germany, where RWE intends to book capacity, could potentially handle imports of H2U green hydrogen.
H2U is developing several hydrogen projects in Australia and New Zealand, such as the Eyre Peninsula Gateway Project. At the planned location in South Australia, they want to build a 75-megawatt electrolysis plant that can supply hydrogen for about 40,000 mt/y of ammonia. In a second phase of expansion throughout the 2020’s H2U wants to extend the capacity to 1.5 gigawatts of electrolysis.
“H2 is the perfect long-term solution to decarbonize industry, aviation, and the transport of heavy goods,” said Javier Moret, RWE’s Global Head of LNG. “Australia is one of the countries that has excellent conditions to produce green hydrogen – low cost of production and a stable framework. As a globally active trader of commodities, we have a lot of experience with shipping energy carriers – including Australian LNG – around the globe, and see ourselves as a facilitator for global hydrogen trading.”
“We see the trading of green hydrogen to Europe being fully decarbonized using green ammonia as the shipping fuel of the future,” said H2U CEO Dr. Attilio Pigneri. “H2U has attracted a cornerstone investment from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan, and we see a strong future for green hydrogen as the decarbonizing energy in power grids, gas grids, mobility, and industry.”
RWE is also constructing renewable energy plants in Australia. In Limondale, the company is currently building one of the largest solar farms in the country. RWE said it is driving forward some 30 hydrogen projects, mostly located in the Netherlands, Germany, and the U.K.