Australian renewable energy company Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) and German utility Eon have formed a partnership to deliver 5mn t/yr of green hydrogen by 2030.

The firms will study—in collaboration with their respective governments—how to ramp up supply as fast as possible.

“The announcement of this historic partnership today aims to diversify the future energy security in Europe,” says FFI chairman Andrew Forrest.

“Green energy will reduce fossil fuel consumption dramatically in Germany and quickly help substitute Russian energy supply,” he adds.

50mn t/yr – FFI’s target green hydrogen production by 2040

This amount of green hydrogen would displace approximately one-third of Germany’s energy imports from Russia, the firms say.

The hydrogen is likely to be produced in Australia, shipped to the EU and distributed by Eon in Germany and the Netherlands. The parties will also look at the best way to build infrastructure and a secure value chain for the product.

“We are foreseeing a rapidly increasing demand for renewable hydrogen, especially in our industrial ‘Mittelstand’ client base in the regions we serve,” says Patrick Lammers, COO of Eon.

German hydrogen ambitions

Germany's national hydrogen strategy set an import target of 76-96TWh for 2030.

The German government has launched the H2Global initiative for green hydrogen imports, a €2bn ($2.4bn) strategy to support electrolyser projects abroad.

Germany is also in talks with Norway over the possibility of importing large volumes of hydrogen, potentially via a pipeline, as it ramps up efforts to reduce its dependence on Russian fossil fuels following the invasion of Ukraine.

 "The race for large-scale production and transportation of green hydrogen has taken off,” says German climate and economy minister Robert Habeck, speaking about the Eon-FFI announcement.

Growing hydrogen networks

FFI is the green energy subsidiary of Australian iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group, which has earmarked 10pc of net profits for the unit to explore green hydrogen projects in Australia, Argentina, Jordan and Papua New Guinea.

FFI’s ambition is to grow its green hydrogen production to 15mn t/yr by 2030 and 50mn t/yr by 2040.

The firm recently designed and built its own pressurised alkaline electrolyser. It has already signed a preliminary deal to supply German materials manufacturer Covestro with 100,000t/yr of green hydrogen.

Alongside utilities Enel and Iberdrola, Eon is setting up a distribution network in Germany’s Ruhr region to deliver 80,000t/yr of hydrogen from 2032. The firms expect demand in the region to rise from 17TWh/yr currently to 150TWh/yr in 2050.

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Author: Tom Young