Green hydrogen: is this Australia’s breakout moment amid US$127 billion boom down under?

Located 400km north of Alice Springs in central Australia, phase one of the proposed Green Springs project, targeted for completion by 2030, will feature 10 gigawatts (GW) of solar panels, enough to meet the requirements of more than 3 million households.

Some 3,000 sq km of additional land is being acquired in the arid region for subsequent expansion and downstream industries, said James Leong, co-founder of Climate Impact Corporation, a Sydney-based firm formed in 2022, which is developing the project.

“Australia has plenty of flat terrain and we have the best infrastructure – railways and highways,” said the Hong Kong-based private equity veteran. “The beauty of hydrogen is that it can be reshaped into downstream products needed by different industries.”

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Alternatively, the green hydrogen can be turned into methane through a complex process, as the Green Springs project envisages. The company proposes to transport the component of natural gas via existing gas infrastructure.

Green Springs plans to deploy European and American equipment to extract moisture from the air to overcome water scarcity in the region, and Chinese equipment to produce solar energy and hydrogen. It takes nine tonnes of water to produce one tonne of hydrogen.

Climate Impact is in talks with a large Japanese utility, which wants to procure green methane to replace liquefied natural gas for its power plants, Leong said.

“Japanese and South Korean shipping, power and steel companies are seeking low-carbon fuels and chemicals,” he said. “Some want green ammonia, some want green methanol and others green methane.”

Climate Impact last month formed a non-binding agreement with