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Partners to develop project to produce hydrogen, ammonia using hydropower

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Indigenous communities and Pollination are partnering to deliver the East Kimberley Clean Energy Project in Australia, producing green hydrogen products and ammonia.

The project is being created under a partnership in which the traditional owners of the land — MG Corporation and Balanggarra Aboriginal Corporation — will join the Kimberley Land Council and climate change investment and advisory firm Pollination as equal shareholders of the project development process and the company created to oversee it.

“This project represents a just, ambitious and achievable vision for Australia’s clean energy future,” said Pollination Head of Projects Rob Grant. “It leverages the natural advantages and existing energy and port infrastructure already in place in the East Kimberley region to create a major new clean energy export hub that will help Australia and our region decarbonize, grow new industries and ensure traditional owners and local residents are shareholders, not just stakeholders, in the benefits.”

Project scoping has been completed and development will continue over the next 12 months. Pending the completion of feasibility and capital raising stages, construction could commence as early as late 2025, with first production by end of 2028.

Stage one of the project involves building a greenfield 900 MW solar farm and a 50,000 tonne per annum hydrogen production facility on MG Corporation freehold land near Kununurra, Western Australia. Electrolysis will convert fresh water from Lake Argyle into green hydrogen, which will be transported via a new 120-km-long pipeline to the Port of Wyndham.

The Ord River hydro facility at Lake Argyle will supply baseload renewable energy to an ammonia production facility in Wyndham, producing about 250,000 tonnes per annum of green ammonia. This ammonia will be used locally in agriculture and for export to key trading partners in Asia and Europe.

The Ord River hydro power plant, completed in 1997, provides electricity to the Argyle Diamond Mine and the nearby towns of Kununurra and Wyndham. Pacific Blue said the Ord River hydro power plant has enabled renewable energy to become the sole source of electricity for the region. The project generates over 212 GWh of emission-free energy each year, which is purchased by Horizon Power and the Argyle Diamond Mine.

“Dozens of governments worldwide, many of them in our neighbourhood, have already issued a hydrogen strategy – flagging how critical this resource is going to be as the world moves towards net zero,” Grant said. “The Australian Government has placed green hydrogen at the heart of its plans to become a clean energy superpower in the future global economy and this is exactly the kind of project that will be critical in making good on that ambition.”

The project will be planned, created and managed by the Aboriginal Clean Energy (ACE) Partnership, a new company in which equal shares are owned by MG Corporation, Kimberley Land Council, Balanggarra Ventures and Pollination.

Pollinaton is a global climate change investment and advisory firm dedicated to accelerating the transition to a net-zero, climate resilient future.