The South Australian government’s $593 million plan to build a hydrogen power station, production facility and storage has received environmental approval from the federal government.
The approval, announced by the state’s Office of Hydrogen Power on Thursday, comes around four months after the proposal received development approval from the state’s planning minister.
The state government’s preferred development partners for the project are Canadian energy infrastructure firm ATCO and BOC, a subsidiary of German chemicals and engineering firm Linde.
Approved under the federal Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act last week, the state government must produce management plans and an environmental impact offset strategy.
These conditions aim to protect the Western Grasswren subspecies in the Gawler Ranges, which is listed as vulnerable under the EPBC Act.
The Hydrogen Jobs Plan was a central election promise of the Malinauskas government, which estimated the production facility, power station and hydrogen storage facility would cost $220 million, $342 million and $31 million, respectively.
The production facility is expected to have an electrolyser capacity of 250MWe, splitting water atoms to produce hydrogen for use in a 200MW hydrogen-fuelled power station.
Office of Hydrogen Power SA chief executive Sam Crafter said environmental approval is “a testament to our commitment to balance renewable energy development with conservation”.
“We’re proud to take a responsible approach that not only drives employment opportunities and innovation in Whyalla but also safeguards the unique biodiversity in the region,” Crafter said.
Development approval for the hydrogen jobs plan was signed off in August 2024, with the release of nine Early Civil Works packages released shortly after for expressions of interest on the Industry Capability Network Gateway.
The state has also engaged with GFG Alliance to potentially supply hydrogen for use in the production of green steel at Whyalla Steelworks, which is under significant financial pressure and is now $6.5 million behind on its royalty payments.
When the state government announced it had entered an Early Contractor Involvement agreement with the German-Canadian consortium in October 2023, it said the project is expected to commence operations in early 2026.
The South Australian government wants to make its first shipment of green iron by 2030, and have begun construction on a green iron production facility that uses hydrogen as an input by 2030.
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