Australia’s Northern Territory (NT) government has elevated the Desert Bloom hydrogen project to major project status that will accelerate the planning approval process for the estimated A$15bn ($10.75bn) venture that aims to develop a 410,000 t/yr hydrogen export project.
The Desert Bloom hydrogen project intends to use a technology to produce water captured from the air and produce green hydrogen, said project developer Aqua Aerem, which is an Australian private-sector company controlled by another Australian private-sector firm Sanguine Impact Investment.
The next steps of this project include the NT government working with Desert Bloom Hydrogen to develop the staged project to its potential export scale, including identifying suitable land in central Australia to harness solar energy, the NT government said.
The NT government released plans in October for an export-oriented hydrogen production hub fuelled by solar photovoltaic and battery storage in an area near Tennant Creek, which is almost 1,000km south of the port city of Darwin. This is also the same region where the Sun Cable operated project plans to host its solar photovoltaic and battery farm to power its 4,200km Australia-Singapore transmission cable, also known as Australia-Asia Power Link.
“This is proven technology that is ready to produce green hydrogen at commercial scale by 2023 with no impact on our water supplies,” Aqua Aerem chief executive officer Gerard Reiter said in a statement.
There has been no commercial development of a hydrogen project at the scale proposed by Aqua Aerem. Tennant Creek is located in a semi-desert region, with no significant water supplies nearby. Many of the hydrogen projects proposed so far in Australia are located near the coast with much easier access to water.
For more information visit www.aqua-aerem.com
