Australia – The Port of Newcastle in Australia is collaborating with Macquarie Group’s Green Investment Group and the Commonwealth Government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to help the Hunter Region create a hydrogen economy.
The Port of Newcastle and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group have initiated a $A3 million feasibility study into the construction of a green hydrogen hub at the Port, with the support of an ARENA financial award of $A1.5 million secured under its Advancing Renewables Program. The Port of Newcastle Hydrogen Hub will initially be supported by a 40MW electrolyzer, which will be expanded to a capacity of more than 1GW over time.
The feasibility study for the initial 40MW hub will identify a broad and comprehensive variety of potential use cases for green hydrogen in the Hunter, building on the region’s strong industrial background. Mobility, bunkering, energy production, and industrial uses at the scale required to position the Hunter in the epicenter of the emerging global green hydrogen opportunity are among them. Developing these use cases would aid in the creation of local jobs during building and operations, the development of new industries, and the long-term economic and energy security of Australia.
The study will also evaluate the viability of an optimal site inside the Port, which has a variety of choices for creating and scaling-up hydrogen and ammonia infrastructure that may successfully link into current East Coast supply chains due to its enormous size and existing infrastructure.
The Port of Newcastle and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group have also signed Memorandums of Understanding with Idemitsu, Keolis Downer, Lake Macquarie City Council, Snowy Hydro, and Jemena, who will also be involved in the feasibility study. Macquarie’s agriculture platform, which handles over 4.5 million hectares of farmland in Australia, will also take part in the feasibility study, which will focus on green ammonia for fertiliser production. A Memorandum of Understanding was also signed with the University of Newcastle, the project’s research and development partner.
