(Sydney) The oil giant BP announced on Wednesday that it was taking a 40.5% stake in the Australian project presented as the largest renewable energy plant in the world.
Posted yesterday at 10:22 p.m.
BP will operate the $36 billion Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH), which will span 6,500 km² in the Pilbara region of Australia’s west coast, one of the largest mining areas of the world.
The site is to generate 26 gigawatts of solar and wind power, supplying the entire Pilbara region. It will also produce 1.6 million tonnes of green hydrogen each year.
AREH is one of the major renewable energy projects in the country, including the Sun Cable of billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, which wants to become the largest solar energy network in the world.
The Pilbara project was first introduced in 2014 as a major solar and wind energy site. But it was halted last year by Australia’s environment minister who deemed it “clearly unacceptable” because of its impact on migratory birds.
A BP spokesperson assured AFP that environmental issues were “taken into consideration by the designers of the project” before a new proposal was presented.
Australia is one of the largest exporters of fossil fuels in the world, a position increasingly criticized because of the consequences for climate change.
Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, BP’s vice-president for gas and low-carbon energies, assures that the company believes in Australia’s potential “to become a locomotive in the global energy transition”.
According to her, the project will also help countries like South Korea and Japan to decarbonize their economy.