Fortescue Future Industries is installing an $83 million (A$114 million) electrolyzer facility at its Green Energy Manufacturing Centre (GEM) in Gladstone Queensland that will double the current global production.
The new facility, located on a 100-hectare site, will have an initial capacity of 2 GW per annum. It is part of Stage one of the GEM, which will be powered by green energy and become a major new pollution-free green manufacturing hub. GEM has several growth stages planned for the factory, which includes green manufacturing technology, like cables, batteries, wind turbines and solar panels.
The remaining stages of the GEM will be delivered in specialist production lines depending on the requirements of the FFI and its customers.
FFI aims to produce 15 million tons of green hydrogen per year by 2030 and the capacity of the new electrolyzer facility will be enough to produce more than 200,000 tons of green hydrogen each year.
The new GEM will transform Queensland into a green energy superpower and Gladstone into a electrolysers manufacturing hub for green hydrogen production, which will help decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors.
FFI Chief Executive Officer Julie Shuttleworth AM expects the global demand for electrolyzers to increase as the world transitions to new energy sources.
“Fortescue Future Industries is ahead of the curve,” Shuttleworth added. “The electrolyzer facility is set to be complete by early next year and will quickly scale up to meet the growing demand for electrolysers. We plan to manufacture other renewable energy components in future expansions,”
The first electrolyzers are expected to be manufactured at the facility in early 2023 for use at FFI’s proposed green hydrogen-to-ammonia project at Gibson Island. The electrolyzer factory is a 50-50 JV between FFI and Plug Power.
