According to The Australian Financial Review, the Japanese backers of a controversial project to convert Victoria’s brown coal into liquid hydrogen for export are warning that the $3 billion development will not go ahead without clearer signs of support from the state and federal government.
The Albanese government’s decision to rule out fossil-fuel-based projects from its $2 billion Hydrogen Headstart funding scheme has intensified worries voiced this year by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and others involved in the project that the policy settings around carbon capture and storage in particular are not supportive. The Japanese government – through its Green Innovation Fund – agreed this year to allocate about $2.35 billion of funding to the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain project that will use carbon capture and storage to help convert the coal into hydrogen that could be shipped to Japan. But the funds will only be disbursed when milestones have been reached, and Yuko Fukuma at Kawasaki’s Japan Suiso Energy, the group leading the development, said that a final decision on the next phase – a $3 billion commercial demonstration project – required “consistency in messaging” from governments to give the backers confidence to move forward. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/all-options-needed-on-hydrogen-japan-ramps-up-push-on-ccs-20230803-p5dtoi
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According to The Australian Financial Review, two major Japanese investors have struck a $US500 million ($763 million) deal to buy into Woodside Energy’s $16.5 billion Scarborough LNG project in Western Australia, shrugging off warnings from green groups about the environmental and commercial risks involved with the project.
The deal with Sojitz Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation also runs counter to warnings that Japanese buyers have lost confidence in Australia as a long-term supplier of LNG after a raft of policy measures against the sector under the Albanese government that cast doubt over future supply volumes. Under the accord announced on Tuesday, the two diversified trading giants, equal partners in the Japan LNG venture, will buy a 10 per cent stake in the Scarborough gas field and they have signed up for LNG cargoes. They have also agreed to collaborate with Perth-based Woodside on clean energy ventures such as hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/woodside-signs-up-japan-for-16-5b-lng-project-20230808-p5duts
According to The Australian Financial Review, Australia’s reigning cotton grower of the year sees a European Union crackdown on the textile industry’s carbon footprint as a money-making opportunity and is moving to build a renewable ammonia and green hydrogen plant on one of his farms with help from the NSW government.
David Statham’s Sundown Pastoral has a business model that relies on a dash of rare earths, its own solar farm and a leap into producing green hydrogen to power farm machinery, and green ammonia for fertiliser. The NSW government has handed Sundown and privately owned Hiringa Energy nearly $36 million to help build a renewable ammonia and green hydrogen plant on a Sundown property west of Moree, in northern NSW. https://www.afr.com/companies/agriculture/top-farmer-cottons-on-with-green-hydrogen-rare-earths-20230802-p5dt5o
According to The Australian Financial Review, homegrown self-tanner and skincare brand Bondi Sands has been offloaded to Japan’s chemical and beauty giant Kao Corporation in a cash deal estimated to be worth $450 million.
The Tokyo-listed Kao owns skincare brands Bioré and Jergens, salon haircare brands Oribe and KMS, and fragrance brand Molton Brown. Mr Wilson said the integration of Kao’s scientific and technological resources was “an unparalleled opportunity” to grow Bondi Sands. https://www.afr.com/companies/retail/sunny-days-bondi-sands-offloaded-to-japan-s-kao-for-450m-20230731-p5dspi
According to The Australian Financial Review, French renewables and storage developer Neoen has decided to increase the size of its large battery under construction in Queensland by 35 per cent in a further sign of the surge of investment in capacity that supports the push to weather-dependent wind and solar.
The Western Downs battery in Queensland will now be built to a capacity of 270 megawatts of power and 540 megawatt-hours of storage, meaning the plant will be able to supply at full capacity for two hours. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/qld-battery-to-be-upsized-as-storage-investments-soar-20230726-p5dr9s
According to The Australian Financial Review, bidders in the $US3.5 billion-plus ($5.2 billion) auction for BHP’s Queensland coal mines – Blackwater and Daunia – are competing to woo five Japanese commodities houses to join their camps.
Sources told Street Talk that the commodities players – some of the biggest names in the sector – are in high demand ahead of binding bids in early August. The sales process is being run by Macquarie Capital. The Japanese firms being targeted by suitors include steelmakers JFE and Nippon Steel, and trading houses Marubeni and Sojitz. A fifth, Itochu, is understood to be working with Whitehaven Coal. https://www.afr.com/street-talk/meet-bhp-s-5b-coal-auction-s-under-the-radar-japanese-kingmakers-20230724-p5dqw2
According to The Australian Financial Review, a proposal for a $3 billion green hydrogen project in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia will be unveiled on Tuesday, with strong participation from two Indigenous communities that will have significant direct stakes in the venture.
The East Kimberley Clean Energy Project, involving a giant 950-megawatt solar farm, is being hailed by climate change investment and advisory firm Pollination as a landmark project. It involves a first-of-its-kind equity partnership with traditional owners of the land where it will be built, which should also mean an unusually rapid development schedule. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/aboriginal-backing-for-3b-kimberley-hydrogen-project-20230717-p5dovg
According to The Australian Financial Review, global miner Rio Tinto and Japan’s Sumitomo Corporation will build a $111 million world-first hydrogen plant at the Yarwun alumina refinery in Gladstone to help reduce carbon emissions at the energy-intensive facility.
As companies across the world grapple with the problems of reducing the carbon footprint at metal processing facilities, Rio will look into the viability of using hydrogen, instead of natural gas, in the calcination process. Sumitomo Corporation will own and operate the electrolyser at the Yarwun site and directly supply hydrogen to Rio Tinto. The electrolyser will have a production capacity of more than 250 tonnes of hydrogen annually. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/rio-tinto-to-make-low-carbon-alumina-20230711-p5dngp
According to The Australian Financial Review, as countries rush to establish “clean” hydrogen industries, Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen said he hoped the rejigged national hydrogen strategy would kickstart the sector and help meet net zero by 2050.
However, only one renewable hydrogen project with a capacity of at least 10MW had got the final go-ahead for construction by the end of 2022. That project, the Yuri venture in Western Australia owned by France’s Engie and Japan’s Mitsui, is 10 times bigger than the largest now in operation, meaning Australia’s total capacity is a fraction of the almost 1400MW of committed capacity in the European Union, and 300MW in the US. The 10MW Yuri project will produce up to 640 tonnes a year of renewable hydrogen. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/2b-hydrogen-fund-to-target-flagship-projects-20230706-p5dm9c
According to The Australian Financial Review, Japan is understood to have formally requested that the Albanese government exclude Santos’ $5.8 billion Barossa gas project in the Timor Sea from Labor’s new emissions policy, fuelled by concerns about the risks it poses to supplies of gas critical to national security.
The request is reportedly part of an urgent query the Japanese government has lodged with Canberra over the beefed-up safeguard mechanism policy, which the government fears will exert “significant influence” over Japan’s involvement in Australian LNG. https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/japan-wants-santos-barossa-gas-project-excluded-from-emissions-policy-20230630-p5dkqj |
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