Emission Control: Energy Albo and NSW Gov't in mega deal to plug renewables and Snowy 2.0 right into the grid

This joint funding deal supports projected private investment in regional energy infrastructure of $32m by 2030
Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen announces $176m of investment to eight grid scale battery projects
Woodside awards major contract at H2OK hydrogen project
FFI works with Siemens Energy on development of ammonia cracker prototype for green hydrogen production

Marrickville Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and NSW premier Dominic Perottet have committed to connecting connect New South Wales’ Renewable Energy Zones (REZs) and Snowy 2.0 into the grid in a landmark deal announced on Wednesday.

The Albanese Government’s Rewiring the Nation plan will enable $4.7 billion from the Commonwealth to join with $3.1 billion from the NSW Transmission Acceleration Facility, to help NSW realise its Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap and increase reliability across the east coast grid.

Albanese said the funds would be used to unlock and support NSW’s critical transmission projects and infrastructure, all of which will help transform Australia into a “renewable energy superpower”.

Projects backed by the latest investment include the $3bn Hume Link project which aims to distribute and connect power from Snowy 2.0, the VNI West interconnector and Sydney Ring transmission link.

The Southwest Renewable Energy Zone (REZ), Hunter-Central Coast REZ (including potential offshore wind opportunities), New England REZ, and Central West Orana REZ are also included in the scheme.

Perrottet said the joint funding deal would support projected private investment in regional energy infrastructure of $32m by 2030.

“This is our opportunity to invest in our future industries that will drive jobs and wealth creation in our state,” the premier said.

Federal govt’s big battery play another leap forward to clean, cheap energy

This latest Rewiring the Nation backing follows the $176m of investment announced by Federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen earlier this week to eight grid scale battery projects across Australia.

Funded under ARENA’s Large Scale Battery Storage Funding Round, each battery will be equipped with grid-forming inverter technology, allowing them to provide essential system stability services traditionally provided by synchronous generation such as coal and gas.

With a total project value of $2.7 billion and a capacity of 2.0GW / 4.2GWh these projects represent a tenfold increase in grid-forming electricity storage capacity currently operational in the National Electricity Market.

Tim Buckley, Climate Energy Finance director says this announcement shows Australia’s federal government is moving with urgency to rectify the energy and climate policy chaos of the LNP over the last decade.

“Distributed utility scale battery capacity is an ideal way of building investor confidence and deploying storage and firming capacity at speed in the interim,” he says.

“Utility batteries are a no-regrets strategy that will encourage global investors to commit capital to new on- and offshore wind and utility solar projects, which are critically needed to increase generation capacity, and hence permanently lower electricity prices for all.

“It is a wonderful way to end the year.”

Here’s how ASX renewable energy companies are tracking:

CODE	COMPANY	PRICE	1 WEEK RETURN %	1 MONTH RETURN %	6 MONTH RETURN %	1 YEAR RETURN %	MARKET CAP
AVL	Aust Vanadium Ltd	0.026	-4%	-10%	-26%	-7%	$102,926,347
BSX	Blackstone Ltd	0.14	-3%	-20%	-30%	-76%	$61,540,068
DEL	Delorean Corporation	0.069	3%	-16%	-27%	-66%	$15,316,185
ECT	Env Clean Tech Ltd.	0.013	0%	-19%	-19%	-64%	$22,311,272
FMG	Fortescue Metals Grp	20.7	1%	8%	18%	5%	$63,211,149,767
PV1	Provaris Energy Ltd	0.046	-18%	-15%	-6%	-53%	$26,317,462
GNX	Genex Power Ltd	0.165	0%	-3%	38%	-18%	$228,554,228
HXG	Hexagon Energy	0.017	0%	0%	-19%	-73%	$8,206,654
HZR	Hazer Group Limited	0.61	-9%	-6%	9%	-42%	$103,118,465
IFT	Infratil Limited	7.9	-5%	-4%	14%	2%	$5,844,905,463
IRD	Iron Road Ltd	0.13	4%	-4%	-7%	-37%	$103,981,970
LIO	Lion Energy Limited	0.034	0%	-6%	-8%	-44%	$14,487,748
MEZ	Meridian Energy	4.8	2%	12%	20%	5%	$6,165,950,453
MPR	Mpower Group Limited	0.018	6%	-14%	-31%	-53%	$4,699,252
NEW	NEW Energy Solar	0.195	0%	16%	47%	45%	$62,514,657
PGY	Pilot Energy Ltd	0.014	-3%	-13%	-30%	-72%	$10,938,817
PH2	Pure Hydrogen Corp	0.165	-11%	-27%	-25%	-68%	$57,451,359
PRL	Province Resources	0.058	0%	-23%	4%	-60%	$72,071,082
PRM	Prominence Energy	0.001	-33%	-50%	-50%	-88%	$3,636,913
QEM	QEM Limited	0.19	3%	6%	-3%	9%	$25,001,560
RFX	Redflow Limited	0.225	-2%	-30%	-48%	-54%	$40,436,856
SKI	Spark Infrastructure	0	-100%	-100%	-100%	-100%	$5,036,718,784
VUL	Vulcan Energy	6.48	-3%	-10%	16%	-40%	$913,682,867
CXL	Calix Limited	4.78	0%	-4%	-22%	-18%	$828,268,672
KPO	Kalina Power Limited	0.016	0%	-33%	-16%	-30%	$24,243,133
RNE	Renu Energy Ltd	0.048	-8%	-20%	66%	-39%	$22,004,273
NRZ	Neurizer Ltd	0.098	-2%	-11%	-37%	-35%	$108,442,943
LIT	Lithium Australia	0.044	-6%	-19%	-36%	-58%	$53,732,434
TNG	TNG Limited	0.07	-16%	-22%	27%	-9%	$99,966,112
SRJ	SRJ Technologies	0.12	-72%	-72%	-72%	-72%	$38,345,359
NMT	Neometals Ltd	0.835	-9%	-20%	-11%	-18%	$456,011,470
MR1	Montem Resources	0.04	0%	0%	60%	-22%	$12,893,190
FGR	First Graphene Ltd	0.115	5%	-8%	-4%	-44%	$58,131,639
EGR	Ecograf Limited	0.245	2%	-22%	-14%	-60%	$101,325,028
EDE	Eden Inv Ltd	0.005	0%	-17%	-50%	-74%	$13,556,151
CWY	Cleanaway Waste Ltd	2.68	-2%	-3%	0%	-9%	$5,943,420,320
CPV	Clearvue Technologie	0.18	-3%	0%	-25%	-22%	$37,985,737
CNQ	Clean Teq Water	0.375	0%	-1%	-17%	-46%	$20,775,707
M8S	M8 Sustainable	0.008	0%	-20%	0%	-43%	$3,927,268
EOL	Energy One Limited	4.5	3%	-2%	0%	-26%	$134,707,770
LNR	Lanthanein Resources	0.022	-8%	-33%	38%	22%	$21,594,663
FHE	Frontier Energy Ltd	0.435	-15%	-7%	129%	235%	$102,832,603
LPE	Locality Planning	0.052	-2%	-21%	-5%	-63%	$9,264,126

Stand-out renewable energy news this week:

WOODSIDE (ASX:WDS)

Woodside has awarded a major contract to Air Liquide Engineering and Construction for the liquefaction equipment at its proposed H2OK hydrogen project in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Air Liquide is set to provide the engineering and fabrication of two 30 tonne per day liquefaction units which will liquefy hydrogen produced through electrolysis in preparation for storage, loading and transportation to customers.

Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill said the contract award was a significant milestone for H2OK, for which frontend engineering design activities are targeted to be completed this year.

FORTESCUE FUTURE INDUSTRIES (UNLISTED)

Fortescue Metals Group (ASX:FMG) green arm is at it again – this time working with a consortium of partners, including Siemens Energy, to develop a 3.5m ammonia cracker prototype designed to produce green hydrogen at industrial scale.

The system will be designed to deliver high-purity hydrogen, suitable for PEM fuel cell use, using FFI’s Metal Membrane Technology (MMT) purification process.

FFI says the MMT process – developed by the company and Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is key to producing high-purity hydrogen from the ammonia cracking process.

“It selectively filters the hydrogen whilst blocking other gases, allowing it to be used as a fuel and converted as needed, at the time of re-fuelling,” the green energy firm says.

The cracker and MMT, if successful, will allow the green hydrogen to be recovered and delivered as high-purity hydrogen at the point of use, with a focus on mobility and off-grid power applications.

The technology could then be scaled up for future markets, including industry, heat, and grid-scale power generation.

ECOGRAF (ASX:EGR)

EcoGraf signed a non-binding MoU with France-based MTB Group for the collaboration and development of a production anode scrap recycling business to recover both copper and carbon from lithium-ion batteries.

The plan is to localise a commercial recycling solution close to planned battery gigafactories and in an en emerging market where battery manufacturing projections are over 1,000 GWh

Both companies plan to share the value proposition from the recovery of both the copper and carbon as well as support closed-loop anode recycling, to lower battery unit cost and carbon emissions.

ENVIRONMENTAL CLEAN TECHNOLOGIES (ASX:ECT)

ECT is another step closer to final design and phase-2 works after completing the wet commissioning of COLDdry primary and conditioning systems.

This process spanned several weeks and entailed individual commissioning of components that make up the primary processing and conditioning system, followed by integrated end-to-end trials to confirm baseline operational alignment with design parameters.

ECT says this core experimental activity is expected to produce a reasonable volume of COLDry.

“Where that COLDry meets desired specifications, we anticipate being able to sell it into the local solid fuel market as we advance to phase two of the project,” it said in an announcement on Thursday.