Energy consultancy Xodus is working on a green hydrogen project based in Western Australia which will scale up to 1GW of electrolyser capacity.
MercurHy is an export scale project which aims to supply green hydrogen whilst leveraging economies of scale, particularly regarding the supply and purchase of renewable energy.
Investor engagement is underway as the company targets equity funding for the project from experienced capital and infrastructure partners interested in commercial green hydrogen progressing.
The project provides for a total electrolyser capacity of 1000MW being installed over three phases: 150MW in Phase 1; 500MW in Phase 2; and 1000MW by the end of Phase 3.
The intent behind scaling the project in this way is two-fold, initially to allow the market for green hydrogen sufficient time to develop and then to capitalise on future electrolyser price reductions.
Western Australia, particularly the Mid-West region, is an ideal location to site the project with strong opportunities to decarbonise nearby local industrial loads.
It also has world class renewable energy resources (with existing wind farms in the area achieving up to 50% capacity factors), excellent access to export markets via local ports, access to electrical infrastructure, available land, as well as strong government support.
Xodus continues to progress the commercial strategy for the project, having entered into a memorandum of understanding for hydrogen supply with ASX-listed VRX Silica, a company with long-life, high quality silica sand projects in Western Australia and plans for the manufacture of solar panels locally to supply national and international demand.
Xodus has also advanced discussions with other potential offtakers and has the support of local landowners and the Western Australian Government.