A shortlist of potential development partners for a proposed 600MW green hydrogen production and export facility planned for New Zealand’s South Island includes two of Australia’s most prominent energy players, Fortescue Future Industries and oil and gas giant Woodside Energy.
Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Australia’s iron ore giant Fortescue Metals Group, and Woodside Energy, Australia’s leading natural gas producer, have made a shortlist of four companies to collaborate on the 600MW Southern Green Hydrogen project with Meridian Energy and Contact Energy from New Zealand.
Meridian Energy and Contact Energy want to build a large-scale green hydrogen production and export facility in the Southland region, using renewable energy from the existing Manapouri hydroelectric power station of 800MW. Manapouri, New Zealand’s largest hydroelectric generator, currently supplies the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter, which consumes about 12% of the country’s electricity. The supply agreement will run out in December 2024.
The smelter’s closure, which is majority-owned by Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto, will free up an estimated 438 GWh of renewable energy per year, which Meridian and Contact plan to repurpose into the growing green hydrogen industry.
Meridian and Contact announced this week a shortlist of four potential project development partners, including FFI and Woodside. Other companies on the shortlist included BOC, a British engineering and gas supply company, and a consortium led by Mitsui and Eneos, a Japanese commercial conglomerate.
The shortlist was chosen after a registration of interest process received more than 80 responses, according to the Meridian and Contact joint venture. The shortlisted parties will now put together early stage business plans and cases for the large-scale green hydrogen production facility, according to the joint venture. Their plans must be submitted by the middle of April. By the middle of 2022, the chosen partner or partners should be announced, with development activities starting in the second half of the year.
