Australia to host 3-GW green energy hub for ammonia exports to S Korea

A tie-up of three major South Korean industrial firms has proposed to create a green energy export corridor to connect Queensland, Australia, and northeast Asia, targeting a million-tonne production of green ammonia with 3 GW of renewable energy generation capacity.

The ambitious project was put forward by the Han-Ho Hydrogen Consortium which comprises Korea Zinc Inc (KRX:010130), along with its Australian unit Ark Energy, petrochemicals group Hanwha Impact Corp and SK Gas (KRX:018670). The creation of the tie-up was announced by the Queensland government on Wednesday through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

The Han-Ho Hydrogen consortium’s plan centers around the development of Ark Energy’s new Collinsville Green Energy Hub project, which has the potential to produce renewable electricity from up to 3 GW of installed capacity. The type of technologies that will be deployed at the site near Bowen has not been specified. The huge complex will potentially supply electricity to power electrolysers that will produce more than one million tonnes of green ammonia annually for export to South Korea by 2032.

“Korea is Queensland’s third-largest two-way trading partner and one of our largest sources for foreign investment,” said Queensland’s Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

The size of the proposed investment was not disclosed. According to local media, the huge scheme will require AUD 20 billion (USD 13.36bn/EUR 13.4bn).

The partners will seek to take a final investment decision on the project around 2027 or 2028 and the construction work is expected to take about four years, Ark Energy’s CEO Daniel Kim has told reporters, as quoted by Reuters.

Queensland is already a substantial exporter of food, agricultural products, coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) to South Korea. Government statistics show that the Aussie state has more than 25 projects in the planning stage to produce hydrogen or ammonia, mostly from renewable energy.

(AUD 1.0 = USD 0.668/EUR 0.670)

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