The Australian Renewable Energy Hub, formerly Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH), is a proposal to create one of the world's largest

renewable energy Renewable energy (also called green energy) is energy made from renewable resource, renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human lifetime, human timescale. The most widely used renewable energy types are solar energy, wind pow ...

plants in the

Pilbara The Pilbara () is a large, dry, sparsely populated regions of Western Australia, region in the north of Western Australia. It is known for its Indigenous Australians, Aboriginal people; wealth disparity; its ancient landscapes; the prevailing r ...

region of

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

. After several revisions of the original project concept, in January 2023 the

Government of Western Australia The Government of Western Australia is the States and territories of Australia, Australian state democratic administrative authority of Western Australia. It is also commonly referred to as the WA Government or the Western Australian Governmen ...

approved a revised set of seven projects, totalling 26 GW of wind and solar capacity that would be used to produce green hydrogen, to be exported by converting it to

ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic chemical compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the chemical formula, formula . A Binary compounds of hydrogen, stable binary hydride and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinctive pu ...

History

The Asian Renewable Energy Hub was first proposed in 2014, with plans for the project concept changing several times since then. The project initially aimed to supply power via an undersea power cable (to

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

and perhaps on to

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

) with a capacity of 15

gigawatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named in honor o ...

(GW), using four cables, each long. However, having explored the potential of exporting green hydrogen via the manufacture of ammonia, it was able to aim for an extra 11GW. The

gave environmental approval for phase one of the project (15,000

megawatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named in honor o ...

(MW) of power generation, across in October 2020. Given the status of "major project" by the

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

in October 2020, the proposed development of the plant enables the goals set under the Western Australian Renewable Hydrogen Strategy to be brought forward from 2040 to 2030. After a revised proposal was submitted to the Australian Government, in June 2021 Minister for the Environment

Sussan Ley Sussan Penelope Ley (pron. , "Susan Lee"; ; born 14 December 1961) is an Australian politician who is the current Leader of the Opposition (Australia), Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia, leader of the Liberal ...

ruled this plan unacceptable owing to its potential impact on threatened migratory species and internationally significant

wetlands A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

in the area. Eighty Mile Beach is a RAMSAR listed site which provides habitat for several threatened species of migratory birds and a large population of

waterbird A water bird, alternatively waterbird or aquatic bird, is a bird that lives on or around water. In some definitions, the term ''water bird'' is especially applied to birds in freshwater ecosystems, although others make no distinction from seabi ...

s, which would be disrupted by the marine components of the project, which would affect tidal movements. The consortium continue to work on the environmental impact plans and mitigation measures. As of June 2022, the project developers bp, Intercontinental Energy, CWP Global,

Vestas Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a Danish manufacturer, seller, installer, and servicer of wind turbines that was founded in 1945. The company operates manufacturing plants in Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Taiwan, India, Italy, Romania, the Un ...

, and Pathway Investments were planning to build a mixture of

wind power Wind power is the use of wind energy to generate useful work. Historically, wind power was used by sails, windmills and windpumps, but today it is mostly used to generate electricity. This article deals only with wind power for electricity ge ...

and

solar energy Solar energy is the radiant energy from the Sun's sunlight, light and heat, which can be harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating) and solar architecture. It is a ...

power generators which would generate up to 26GW of power. In January 2023, Western Australia approved a land allocation for a revised set of seven projects, renamed the Australian Renewable Energy Hub, which total 26 GW of wind and solar capacity that would be used to produce hydrogen and ammonia. bp bought a 40.5% stake in the project in 2022. Current project partners as at 31 January 2025 are bp (63.57 per cent), InterContinental Energy (26.39 per cent) and CWP Global (10.04 per cent).

Location and description

Located in the

region of

, up to 1,743

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

s of in height would be accommodated in of land, and 18 arrays of

solar panel A solar panel is a device that converts sunlight into electricity by using photovoltaic (PV) cells. PV cells are made of materials that produce excited electrons when exposed to light. These electrons flow through a circuit and produce direct ...

s each generating 600

megawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of Power (physics), power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantification (science), quantify the rate of Work ...

s would cover . It is to be located in the

Shire of East Pilbara The Shire of East Pilbara is one of the four local government areas in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. With an area of , larger than the Australian states of Victoria and Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is ...

, about inland from 80 Mile Beach, with the nearest settlement on the map being Mandora Station. The total size of the scheme would be about . The plant would use the electricity generated by the

s and solar power to extract

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

from water. The hydrogen is then mixed with

nitrogen Nitrogen is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a Nonmetal (chemistry), nonmetal and the lightest member of pnictogen, group 15 of the periodic table, often called the Pnictogen, pnictogens. ...

extracted from the

air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

to produce

. The ammonia is easily transported using tankers, and opens up the possibility for more markets around the world. For the ten years of project construction, the project is expected to create 5,000 jobs, with about 3,000 ongoing jobs anticipated over its 50-year lifetime. It is planned to create a coastal town campus between Port Hedland and Broome, and

desalination plant Desalination is a process that removes mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination is the removal of salts and minerals from a substance. One example is soil desalination. This is important for agriculture. It is possible ...

s will provide most of the water supply needed for both human consumption and plant cooling purposes.

References

{{reflist

External links

www.areh.com.au
Renewable energy in Australia Pilbara Energy in Western Australia Proposed buildings and structures in Australia