Melbourne:
The Australian government has rejected plans for a $36 billion wind, solar and hydrogen project in a remote region of Western Australia, leaving what would have been one of the world’s biggest green power projects in limbo for now.
In a selection dated June 15, published on the atmosphere department’s web page, Environment Minister Sussan Ley ruled that the project, the Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH), “will have clearly unacceptable impacts” on internationally recognised wetlands and migratory bird species.
The AREH project, situated in the state’s Pilbara area, was made to initially make 15 gigawatts (GW) of renewable power capacity, at some point to be expanded to 26 GW and create green hydrogen and ammonia for export.
The government had awarded the project quick-track approval status last September, touting the jobs, clean power for neighborhood sector and massive-scale export chance that it would bring. AREH is getting created by privately owned InterContinental Energy, renewables developer CWP Energy Asia, best worldwide wind turbine maker Vestas and a Macquarie Group fund.
The atmosphere minister cited the expansion program in the rejection selection. The project’s original program won environmental approval last December.
The proposed enlargement came with a port facility for ammonia a town that would be home to 8,000 men and women such as project workers expanded solar arrays ammonia, hydrogen and desalination plants and storage facilities and a pipeline route for transporting ammonia, seawater and brine by way of wetlands.
“We are now working to understand the minister’s concerns, and will engage further with the minister and her department as we continue to work on the detailed design and engineering aspects of the project,” the AREH consortium stated in a statement. The project, on the drawing board because 2014, initially planned to create wind and solar energy and transmit it by way of an undersea cable to Asia, but last year changed plans, aiming to use clean energy to split water to create hydrogen and ammonia for export.
Australia’s Clean Energy Council on Monday stated it expects the government will work with AREH to assess and address any environmental impacts. “If the government is to be taken seriously on developing a hydrogen economy, companies prioritising genuinely zero emissions projects should be assisted to reach a final investment decision,” stated Dan Gocher, climate and atmosphere director at the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility.
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