Natural gas supplier from Japan, Osaka Gas is partnering Aqua Aerem to co-develop 10 GW Desert Bloom Hydrogen Project in Australia's solar energy rich Northern Territory that will deploy only off-grid renewable energy. It will also produce its own water for the project from the atmosphere.
Backed by Sanguine Impact Assessment, Aqua Aerem aims to produce 410,000 metric ton (MT) of green hydrogen annually for less than $2.00 per kg through the Desert Bloom Hydrogen project within 5 years. The $10.75 billion project is at shovel-ready stage currently.
"Desert Bloom Hydrogen will produce revenue from the installation of the first module and does not require large upfront expenditure, including investment in large infrastructure that may become stranded or suffer from technological obsolesce," said Aqua Aerem Chairman and Sanguine Managing Director, David Green.
Sanguine is in the process of increasing the scale of the project to 20 GW to 'meet the quickly developing demand for green hydrogen'. Aqua Aerem is in discussions with other potential partners to sell green hydrogen from the project along with venturing into other joint venture opportunities in energy, chemical, mining, transport and aviation industries.
Under the joint venture development agreement for the project that's been given the Major Project Status by the state government, Osaka Gas will provide its technical support for the project while also working with Aqua Aerem to identify customers and negotiate the sale of green hydrogen produced and also negotiating with equipment manufacturers.
For Osaka Gas, participation in the project will provide on the job knowhow about hydrogen development.
Australia's Northern Territory is encouraging a spurt of green hydrogen and large scale solar power projects. Sun Cable is already working on a massive 20 GW solar power plant power from which is planned to be used for Darwin in Australia while the rest would be sent to Singapore via undersea cables. Global Energy Ventures too has proposed to generate up to 100,000 tons of green hydrogen annually with the help of a 2.8 GW solar energy plant in the state (see 2.8 GW Green Hydrogen Project In Australia).