‘Real risk’ energy giants could abandon plans to build renewable hydrogen projects in Tasmania: Labor

Major industrials including Fortescue Future Industries, Woodside and Origin Energy could walk away from plans to build renewable hydrogen projects in Tasmania, Labor has claimed.

Andrew Forrest. Picture: Colin Murty The Australian

There is a “real risk” that energy giants could abandon plans to invest in Tasmanian renewable hydrogen projects if the state government doesn’t stump up the power and water it promised them, Labor says.

The government released the Tasmanian Renewable Hydrogen Action Plan in 2020, which included a target of beginning production and use of the green fuel between 2022 and 2024.

It also envisioned that export-based renewable hydrogen production projects would be “well-advanced” within the same time period.

Woodside has agreed to terms for a long-term lease of land at Bell Bay for a 1.7GW green hydrogen project, while Origin Energy has completed a feasibility study investigating the construction of a renewable hydrogen and ammonia plant at the industrial site.

Billionaire mining magnate Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) also has plans to build a 250MW green hydrogen and ammonia project at Bell Bay. But Mr Forrest has clashed with Hydro Tasmania in his bid to progress the proposal, saying previously that Hydro told him it had no electricity to provide him “at any price”.

Speaking from Bell Bay on Wednesday, Labor energy spokesman Dean Winter said there had been “almost no progress” on the action plan.

Labor's Dean Winter.

“We know [Energy Minister Guy Barnett] encouraged businesses from right across the country to come to Tasmania to look at hydrogen. He told them there was power and water available,” he said.

“Neither of those things were true.”

Mr Winter said he feared there was “a real risk that one of these major companies will leave [Tasmania] very, very shortly”.

A spokeswoman for FFI said the company still believed its Tasmanian project was “an exciting prospect for the nation, the state of Tasmania … [and] the local community”.

“As an Australian company we are dedicated to making sure Australia and Tasmania don’t miss out on this new industry,” she said.

“The Bell Bay project is key to that.”

The spokeswoman said FFI continued to work “in close collaboration” with the Tasmanian government.

Environment and Climate Change Minister Roger Jaensch said the government had a $20 million renewable hydrogen fund and a $70 million commitment from the Commonwealth to develop a green hydrogen hub at Bell Bay.

Roger Jaensch MP. Picture: Linda Higginson

“We’ve got any number of huge investors doing their feasibility studies on hydrogen-based projects here in Tasmania, taking advantage of our unique opportunity to provide green hydrogen to a world that needs different sorts of energy solutions as we respond to the challenges of climate change,” he said.

A Hydro Tasmania spokesman said details of its negotiations with major industrial customers were “commercial in confidence” but it was working with various parties to “support their projects”.

Originally published as ‘Real risk’ energy giants could abandon plans to build renewable hydrogen projects in Tasmania: Labor