PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Green energy developer Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) and European energy network operator E.ON will partner to become Europe’s largest green renewable hydrogen supplier and distributor.

The two companies are hoping to deliver up to five-million tonnes a year of green, renewable hydrogen (GH₂) to Europe by 2030.

The companies have inked a memorandum of understanding to execute on this ambition, with binding elements between the parties to deliver on this mission. Each side has committed to a research and study partnership, with further detailed documentation and steps required related to supply.

It is intended that renewable GH₂ will be powered by Australia’s immense renewable resources as well as FFI’s other planned global projects, and will be distributed by E.ON. The parties have also agreed to work together to analyse what solutions could look like to solve infrastructure issues and to build a secure value chain.

FFI said on Wednesday that the historic partnership marks E.ON’s and FFI’s broader ambition to lead the decarbonisation of Europe and to strengthen security of green energy supply at a time when Europe needs to reduce its energy dependence on fossil fuels from Russia as quickly as possible.

Five-million tonnes a year of renewable GH₂ is equal to approximately one-third of the calorific energy Germany imports from Russia.

“The announcement of this historic partnership today aims to diversify the future energy security in Europe. Green energy will reduce fossil fuel consumption dramatically in Germany and quickly help substitute Russian energy supply, while creating a massive new, employment-intensive industry in Australia. This is a cohesive and urgently needed part of the green industrial revolution underway here in Europe,” said FFI founder and chairperson Dr Andrew Forrest.

German Vice Chancellor and Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck said that the race for large-scale production and transportation of green hydrogen had taken off.

“The agreement between E.ON and FFI is a major step forward and puts them in a pole position for the delivery of green hydrogen to German industry. I congratulate the two companies and I strongly welcome their contribution to a future without fossil fuels. We will keep fostering initiatives like this one within the German-Australian Energy Partnership.”

Fortescue CEO Elizabeth Gaines told shareholders that the announcement from Europe signalled not only that it was time to make renewable GH₂ available, but was also a decisive step forward in FFI’s journey to become one of the world’s largest green energy producers.

“We are rapidly establishing the building blocks across Australia and globally that will allow us to develop and fully integrate our world-leading green technologies, manufacturing capabilities and green energy generation and distribution. From the beginning of FFI our philosophy was to drive performance across the entire new renewable GH₂ value chain.”