Hydrogen deal struck with aim of lessening European dependence on Russian energy

Australian energy firm Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) says it will supply five million mt/year of green hydrogen to Europe by 2030.

PHOTO: Model of hydrogen energy storage with renewable energy sources - photovoltaic and wind turbine power. Getty Images

FFI has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with European energy network and infrastructure operator E.ON that spans a research partnership and plans to decarbonise “thousands” of mid-sized businesses in German, Dutch and other European cities.

They argue that Australian hydrogen can help solve two challenges in one: decarbonise some of Europe’s energy needs, and lessen its dependence on Russian fossil fuels “as quickly as possible.”

A third of Germany’s energy imports from Russia can be replaced by 5 million mt/year of green hydrogen on a calorific energy basis, they say.

Germany has found itself at the mercy of Russian policymakers after years of strengthening trade links through imports of Russian gas, crude and oil products. This has tied Germany’s hands amid urgent calls for EU-wide sanctions on Russian petroleum imports to cut off cashflows to fuel Russia’s war machine in Ukraine.

“Green energy will reduce fossil fuel consumption dramatically in Germany and quickly help substitute Russian energy supply,” FFI chairman and founder Dr Andrew Forrest says.

Green hydrogen, or hydrogen produced with renewable energy sources, forms a central part of several European countries’ strategies to decarbonise transport and industry. It can be used to produce ammonia and other derivatives, consumed as a fuel in itself in internal combustion engines or to power fuel cells.

But storage and transport has so far proved a challenge in dealing with hydrogen as it requires cryogenic temperatures and insulated tanks to store in a liquid, more energy dense state.

“The race for large scale production and transportation of green hydrogen has taken off,” Germany’s Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck says.

FFI says its hydrogen is produced with 100% renewable and zero-carbon energy sources. It expects to produce 15 million mt/year of green hydrogen by 2030, and ramp this up to 50 million mt/year by 2040.

Around 2.2 million mt/year of this green hydrogen is projected to be produced at a un upcoming plant in Argentina’s Patagonia region through FFI investments.

FFI has also unveiled hydrogen projects in New Zealand, Brazil and India in the past year, as well as export intension deals with Japanese companies.

The firm, which portrays itself as the green energy arm of Australian iron ore giant Fortescue Metals Group, is in the process of building Australia’s biggest hydrogen electrolyser plant near the port of Gladstone.

It has also signed an option agreement with the Tasmanian Ports Corporation for access to ship hydrogen from its proposed green hydrogen plant in Bell Bay in Tasmania.