Andrew Forrest unveils ambitious renewables target
Fortescue chair Andrew Forrest has announced plans to produce or ‘help produce’ more than 1000 gigawatts of zero emission energy.
Fortescue Metals chairman Andrew Forrest has announced plans to increase his company’s exposure to renewable energy to produce or “help produce” more than 1000 gigawatts of zero emission energy.
In a speech to a forum hosted by Credit Suisse yesterday, Mr Forrest said FMG’s renewable energy subsidiary, Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), had already signed up deals giving it access to more than 300GW of renewable energy sources.
This followed a world trip last year by Forrest and other Fortescue executives to more than 40 countries.
Mr Forrest said these deals had largely focused on access to hydro-electric power.
He said that a second round of overseas visits would seek to sign up more than 500GW of renewable energy with an additional focus on solar and wind deals.
“We aim to produce or help produce more than 1000GW of zero emission energy,” he said.
His comments represent a significant increase on the goal of FMG producing 235GW of renewable energy outlined at its annual meeting last November.
This figure represented more than five times the capacity of the National Energy Market.
In his speech, Mr Forrest said generating 1000GW of renewable energy would “create so much momentum and value that consuming energy from a polluting source becomes commercial nonsense”.
He said FFI had originally focused on striking deals for hydro power because “unlike solar or wind, these renewables work around the clock.”
“But we are scaling up wind and solar acquisitions too, exploring over 500GW of energy assets and potentially thousands more gigawatts will follow.”
FFI’s deals struck with governments so far follow visits to more than 40 countries by FMG executives including Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Bhutan, the Congo, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and South Korea.
He said these were mainly agreements for access to hydro energy which would involve having multiple small dams along rivers rather than one big dam.
Forrest launched the idea of renewable energy subsidiary FFI to FMG shareholders last November, outlining an ambitious plan to become one of the world’s largest renewable energy players.
FMG announced in February that former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull would chair the Australian arm of FFI, with the former head of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, Nick Warner, joining FFI as an adviser on international affairs.
Mr Forrest outlined plans to become a major player in hydrogen energy in his Boyer lectures on ABC radio in February.
In his speech yesterday he said the “green hydrogen” market could generate revenues of $US12 trillion ($15.7 trillion) by 2050, greater than any other industry in the world.
Mr Forrest said “green hydrogen” energy would eventually become price competitive with oil and gas power.
Fortescue recently announced plans to become carbon neutral by 2030. This involves plans to develop a “green” iron ore train by June 30 which will run on either renewable electricity or a combustion engine powered by “green” ammonia.
Mr Forrest said there were also plans to test “green” ammonia in a ship’s engine to help replace heavily polluting bunker sea oil.
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