Yesterday The public consultation deadline ended For the environmental approval of Western Green Energy Hub, a project that aspires to become The world’s largest renewable energy center. Projected on an area of 22,700 square kilometers on the southern coast of Western Australia, would occupy more surface than whole countries, such as Slovenia or El Salvador.
The megaproject. A renewable energy hybrid center with a monstrous wind and solar capacity: up to 60 million photovoltaic panels distributed in 35 different parks and 3,000 marine and land wind turbines from 7 to 20 MW.
With an investment of 100,000 million Australian dollars (60,000 million US dollars) and a combined 70 GW power, the center would not only generate clean electricity, but would take advantage of it to feed a series of electrolyzers capable of converting desalinized seawater into 3.5 million tons of hydrogen Green a year, which would be exported to other countries in the form of ammonia.
More electricity than whole countries. Western Green Energy Hub would not only generate more than 200 teravatios-hora of clean energy per year, a figure that exceeds the annual electrical production of most countries, but would leave at the height of a toy the largest renewable energy projects of The news, like Karapinar in Türkiye (with an area of 20 km²), Urumqi in China (with 133 km²) or Khavda in India (with 600 km²).
Australia, which has an annual consumption of 273 twh, does not need so much energy, hence the need to produce green hydrogen to store it ammoniawhich has multiple uses in industry and agriculture.
The concerns. Although Australia is one of the countries that has been betting on renewable energy and green hydrogen, the environmental protection authority mentions A fan of possible impacts in marine and coastal habitats.
Winding can reduce the quality of marine fauna, specifically benthic communities, and affect coastal processes. Also for the dredging and movements of the ships in charge of installing them. On the other hand, dehydration prior to the construction of a desalination plant and the felling of 27,188 hectares of vegetation could reduce terrestrial fauna.
Built in aboriginal lands. If approved, the project will go to history not only for its size, but as one of the first in which A consortium of energy companies Led by Intercontinental Energy and CWP Global, it is associated with owners of aboriginal land, represented by Traditional Mirning Lands Aboriginal Corporation.
The center would be built in seven phases over 30 years, with the aim of installing 35 nodes between 2 and 3 GW from here to 2050. The chosen place is the mirning lands in the great Australian bay, among the towns of EUCLA and KALGOORLIE-BOULDER, to take advantage of the immense potential of wind and solar energy in the area, with an estimated use factor of 70%.
Image | WGEH