East Kimberley Clean Energy Project – Stage 1, Feasibility Study

Summary

Need

As the world races to reach net zero there is a growing need for nations to decarbonise their agriculture and energy. This is expected to result in growing demand for products such as renewable hydrogen and ammonia, both in Australia and internationally. 

The Australian Government has indicated plans for Australia to become a ‘hydrogen superpower’, leveraging these advantages to take a leading role in global production and export. 

The East Kimberley region is well situated to help meet this demand because it holds advantages such as abundant sunshine, fresh water, excellent transport links and infrastructure, that are critical for renewable hydrogen production.  

In the Kimberley, WA, Traditional Owners are the largest landholding group, with native title recognising Indigenous rights and interests to lands and waters. Indigenous-led initiatives that harness cultural, social and environmental values to deliver sustainable outcomes, play a significant role in underpinning a prosperous, low emissions future for Australia and our global partners. Developing new models to increase opportunities for investment and lower risk, will lead to the development of more innovative projects by and in partnership with Traditional Owners. 

Action

The Aboriginal Clean Energy Partnership (ACEP) Project will deploy a partnership model to oversee the development process for a renewable powered hydrogen and ammonia production facility. 

ACEP is comprised of four partners, each holding an equal share. Traditional Owner groups Balanggarra Ventures, MG Corporation and Kimberley Land Council, each own 25 per cent, as does climate and nature advisory and investment firm, Pollination. 

The partnership will oversee the development process, which will involve the delivery of engineering reports and plans, native title, heritage and environmental approvals. This will help decrease project risk and increase development certainty.  

The development involves approximately 900 MW – 1 GW of solar PV combined with ~20 MW of hydro energy from the existing Ord Hydro Power Plant at Lake Argyle to produce ~40,000 – 50,000 tpa hydrogen on MG Corporation land. The renewable hydrogen would then be transported by pipeline (approximately 120km in length) to Balanggarra Country in Wyndham to produce 180,000 – 250,000 tpa renewable ammonia primarily for export to Asia with the potential to sell to local farming cooperatives.  

The Project will inform the proposed development which intends to utilise existing hydro power generation at Lake Argyle, greenfield solar generation on MG Corporation land near Kununurra, infrastructure corridors to Wyndham and hydrogen carrier production and export facilities at Wyndham Port. 

The Project (Stage 1) will progress project design with specific focus on the solar PV, power/ process engineering and environmental/ approvals workstreams of the project. 

Outcome

The Project will achieve: 

1. Increase understanding of the technical and social barriers and opportunities to commercialise renewable hydrogen produced with solar PV and hydro in the East Kimberley region.
2. Increase understanding of ecological features and identification of approval pathways for renewable energy development in the East Kimberley region. 
3. Increase understanding of management principles relevant to developing clean energy projects involving majority First Nations ownership. 

The partnership behind this Project ensures that the processes of project design, approvals applications and benefit sharing with local communities are de-risked and accelerated, leading to a more efficient outcome but also one where Traditional Owners are fully and meaningfully engaged as partners and shareholders. 

Additional impact

The ACEP model provides First Nations partners with decision-making control during the feasibility stage. A key output from the Project will be the development of a Workforce and Capacity Building Plan which will outline how knowledge will be gained and shared with Traditional Owner groups. This will ensure enduring benefits to the community through all stages of the Project.