E ON signs an MoU with Forrest for $50 billion green hydrogen project

Australia iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest has struck a potential $50 billion green hydrogen agreement with German energy giant E.ON to produce up to five million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030.

The landmark agreement could deliver one third of Forrest’s hugely ambitious plans to produce 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030, a target the head of his own green energy company Fortescue Future Industries Julie Shuttleworth thought was “very, very stretch”, but now says is quite achievable.

“We cannot keep gambling our energy security and the planet’s future on fossil fuels,” Shuttleworth said in a statement on Tuesday. “Green hydrogen is the practical, implementable solution to decarbonise and lower emissions.”

Forrest signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with E.ON and Germany government leaders in Berlin indicated it would include exports of renewable hydrogen from Australia.

The five million tonne green hydrogen target would likely require in the order of 60-70GW of wind and solar capacity. Forrest said it would represent an investment of around $50 billion, one of the largest ever energy investments of any kind.

Fortescue is seizing on the opportunities presented by the decision by Germany and other European countries to stop their dependence on Russian gas as quick as they can. This deal would account for one third of those imports. “Freedom energy”, Forrest described it at the press conference.

The two companies said any deal that emerges from the MoU would help lead the decarbonisation of Europe and to strengthen security of green energy supplies at a time when Europe needs to reduce its energy dependence on fossil fuels from Russia as quickly as possible.

The five million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of renewable hydrogen is equal to around one third of the Germany fossil fuel imports from Russia and will help decarbonise thousands of medium-sized enterprises in Germany, the Netherlands, and other European cities where E.ON distributes energy.

“Without green hydrogen we won’t have a planet,” Forrest told a news conference in Berlin. “This will make a huge dent in calorific energy that is being imported every day from Russia and replace that with pure, zero pollution green hydrogen. Source: https://reneweconomy.com.au/