{"id":513651,"date":"2026-03-02T10:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/513651\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T10:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T10:12:08","slug":"transformational-offtake-interest-spurs-progress-on-huge-nullarbor-renewables-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/513651\/","title":{"rendered":"“Transformational:” Offtake interest spurs progress on huge Nullarbor renewables hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mammoth proposed 70 gigawatt wind, solar and hydrogen hub project in Western Australia\u2019s Nullarbor has enough \u201cofftake interest\u201d in green ammonia to justify bringing the first stage online by 2033.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Interest from Japanese and Korean companies for green ammonia from the Western Green Energy Hub (WGEH) supports an initial 1.4 million tonnes per annum facility, says lead developer Intercontinental Energy.<\/p>\n

The news comes just a month after the developers brought in several new Asian partners<\/a> to work on\u00a0a feasibility study for the first phase of the project, which includes 6 gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar to produce around 330,000 tonnes of green hydrogen a year.<\/p>\n

Those partners are Chinese renewable energy supplier Sany and several unnamed South Korea companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe last three months have been transformational,\u201d Intercontinental Energy CEO Alexander Tancock said in a statement this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe interest we are seeing at WGEH from customers in Japan and Korea validates the alignment between Australia\u2019s long-term vision and that of its strategic trading partners, marking another major step forward towards a large-scale green hydrogen industry in Western Australia.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

WGEH is led by InterContinental Energy,\u00a0and international renewables outfit CWP Global, and a commercial subsidiary of WA Mirning People Aboriginal Corporation (WAMPAC) called Mirning Green Energy Ltd (MGEL) are also shareholders.<\/p>\n

The WGEH project is of a scale that hasn\u2019t been tried anywhere in the world before.<\/p>\n

The vision is for up to 35 \u201cnodes\u201d of around 2-3 GW of wind and solar supporting either a 1.5 GW electrolyser and\/or data centre at the centre of each.<\/p>\n

It would be built in stages over 30 years, and deliver up to 3.5 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year and up to what the company says will be 28 million tonnes of green ammonia annually as well.<\/p>\n

It would cover around 2.3 million hectares of pastoral leases and crown lands, stretching hundreds of kilometres in and around the Nullarbor from north-west of Eucla, near the border with South Australia, towards Cocklebiddy and north of the Eyre Highway to south of the Trans Australian Railway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WGEH is currently working through an EPBC assessment and the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) approvals process.<\/p>\n

But it received federal major project status last year which provides quicker approval processes, and plans on making a final investment decision in 2029.<\/p>\n

The 2033 start date, provided planning approvals go smoothly, combined with the customer interest is keeping the light alive for the massive project in a field where others have failed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Western Green Energy Hub, which will scale to be the world\u2019s largest green e-fuels project, represents a pivotal opportunity for Western Australia to position itself at the forefront of the clean fuels sector,\u201d WGEH CEO Raymond Macdonald said in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing tremendous alignment between our local and international stakeholders. This growing customer interest highlights the project\u2019s strategic importance.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rachel Williamson is a science and business journalist, who focuses on climate change-related health and environmental issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mammoth proposed 70 gigawatt wind, solar and hydrogen hub project in Western Australia\u2019s Nullarbor has enough \u201cofftake…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,38056,257063,128,3439],"class_list":["post-513651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-green-ammonia","tag-intercontinental-energy","tag-science","tag-western-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}