Southern Green Hydrogen partners have voiced confidence their plans for the world’s first large-scale green hydrogen plant in Southland will go ahead. Asked to indicate their confidence levels at this week’s Murihiku Regeneration energy and innovation wānanga in Invercargill, Meridian Energy’s Murray Hill said, “This project will get done, it’s just a matter of when’’. Australian-based global energy company Woodside Energy’s Gabrielle Pennock added: “We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have confidence it would proceed.’’ For Mitsui & Co, one of Japan’s largest trading and investment companies, Jason Brown said: “We’re here to make this a success.’’ READ MORE: * Murihiku Regeneration wānanga seeks to turn strategy into action * Australian companies in the mix for $5b Southland hydrogen plant * What Murihiku learned from past transformations The significance of the proposal, estimated to be a $5 billion undertaking, loomed large throughout the two-day seminar, alongside an often-repeatemessage that it should be seen as an addition to the continued operation of the Rio Tinto/NZAS Tiwai smelter, not a replacement for it. The project is to build a plant to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, with the hydrogen used as a fuel. Although the primary electricity source would be Meridian’s Manapouri scheme, Hill said other renewable electricity sources from the region – “more than likely new generation’’ – would be used for the 600MW facility to produce up to 500,000 tonnes a year of green ammonia. In both scale and timing – earlier indications were of a five-year timeline – it was an ambitious project, but the partners were going into it with their eyes wide open, he said. Initially the focus would be on the international market, but they would also be alert to opportunities in the developing domestic market.GETTY IMAGES/Getty ImagesGreen hydrogen is still an emerging market in New Zealand. When the search for preferred partners began, initial marketing had attracted abou 00 responses. These were boiled down to 20 and eventually Woodside and Mitsui emerged. Mitsui’s Nozumo Ohiki said the export markets were primarily Japan, South Korea and Singapore as a replacement for coal in co-fired systems (using two fuels in a single combustion system), in chemicals, and as a marine fuel. Pennock said developing a product for a market that did not yet exist carried a lot of risks, but the partners were taking a leap of faith together “that the market will develop to enable a final investment decision to be made’’. It was taking time to finalise commercial arrangements, because these were designed to cover more than the development phase, reaching into the plant’s full operational life cycle. “So we’re looking at 20-year-plus agreement.’’ She said work on a site for the Southland plant was also continuing and conversations with local stakeholders were under way. There would be a strong focus on process safety and environmental standards. Meridian’s Hill said theplnt would have the ability to integrate into New Zealand’s electricity system. It would have the demand flexibility to be able to dial back production in dry-year conditions when the hydro lakes had receded. The Government’s recent Budget announced a phased $100 million investment to develop the green hydrogen economy in Southland. It would provide a rebate to close the price gap between green hydrogen and fossil fuels through long-term contracts between hydrogen consumers and the Crown. Murihiku Regeneration, representing both Ngāi Tahu and the local rūnanga of Murihiku, has been working closely with the project partners to ensure the project aligns with their energy vision for the region and supports their principles under mana whenua. The programme director of Murihiku Regeneration, Terry Nicholas, said anybody doubting the capacity the projects international partners had to deliver a project of this scale and significance need only Google them.
