{"id":14093,"date":"2021-01-27T02:18:19","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T02:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationaus.com\/?p=15913"},"modified":"2021-01-27T02:18:19","modified_gmt":"2021-01-27T02:18:19","slug":"andrew-forrest-on-the-road-to-renewables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/27\/andrew-forrest-on-the-road-to-renewables\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Forrest on the road to renewables"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not every year <\/strong>the prestigious Boyer Lecture prompts the need for an ASX market disclosure document to be filed with the exchange.<\/p>\n

But that was the case<\/a> with Andrew Forrest\u2019s Fortecue Metals Group revealed the depth of global ambitions to develop massive renewable power resources to produce green hydrogen.<\/p>\n

Mr Forrest also used the lecture to unveil plans to build a \u2018green\u2019 steel pilot plant this year, with a commercial plant in the Pilbara powered entirely by wind and solar in the next several years.<\/p>\n

\"Andrew
Green steel: Andrew Forrest has revealed the depth of ambitions in renewables Photo: Fortescue<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fortescue published the full transcript of the lecture in a letter to the ASX largely because the speech revealed net profit after tax of over US$940 million for the month of December 2020 based on preliminary unaudited management accounts.<\/p>\n

But the strength of commitment to renewables, hydrogen and ultimately to the production of green steel will have surprise some. You can listen to the full audio of the Mr Forrest\u2019s first Boyer Lecture here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fortescue would become a \u2018first-mover\u2019 on green hydrogen and other green product businesses including steel, Mr Forrest said. Based on the strength of the Fortescue balance sheet, the company could become a major contributor to climate innovation.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Fortecue] has a market capitalisation of less than 60 billion US dollars \u2013 but it made a net profit, after tax, of over 940 million US dollars \u2013 just last month,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on this position of strength, the Fortescue leadership recently decided to have a crack at becoming one of the world\u2019s largest green energy and product businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo catalyse a global solution to climate change \u2013 by rapidly increasing the supply of green hydrogen.\u201d<\/p>\n

A team from Fortescue has been on the road across the world since August last year testing the appetite for green energy investment and came back to Australia with a galvanised view of the investment potential for renewables and green hydrogen production.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question wasn\u2019t whether green hydrogen would become the next global energy form \u2013 it was which company would have the resilience to take the risk and truly test green hydrogen at global, industrial scale?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe board and I decided Fortescue would be that first mover. We are now undertaking feasibility studies that could lead to some 300 GW of power \u2013 more than four times what Australia can produce,\u201d Mr Forrest said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have targeted hydro-electricity \u2013 generated by rivers \u2013 and geothermal, which taps into the heat from the Earth\u2019s core \u2013 these renewables work around the clock \u2013 yet solar is currently the cheapest form of energy in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur final aim is 1,000 gigawatts of zero-emissions energy. It sounds daunting, and naysayers are everywhere. But as someone who\u2019s made a career out of doing what other people said was impossible, this doesn\u2019t feel any different,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fortescue is trialling two separate ways of producing steel without coal. The company aims to start building Australia\u2019s first green steel pilot plant this year, with a commercial plant in the Pilbara \u2013 powered entirely by wind and solar, in the next few years.<\/p>\n

The economic upside for Australia is massive and arrives at a time when the country faces large-scale job losses in the coal sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia is in an absolutely unique position to scale green steel,\u201d Mr Forrest said. \u201cWe could look at losing our coal industry as a national disaster \u2013 yet I\u2019ve always believed out of every setback, is the seed of equal or greater opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe produce over 40 per cent of the world\u2019s iron ore. And our potential green energy and hydrogen resources are immeasurable.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Australia were to capture just 10 per cent of the world\u2019s steel market, we could generate well over 40,000 jobs \u2013 more than what\u2019s required to replace every job in the coal industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot any old jobs, but similar jobs \u2013 construction workers, mechanics, electricians, engineers \u2013 all of the sectors that\u2019ll be hit when coal is phased out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Andrew Forrest on the road to renewables<\/a> appeared first on InnovationAus<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on InnovationAus<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not every year the prestigious Boyer Lecture prompts the need for an ASX market disclosure document to be filed with the exchange. But that was the case with Andrew Forrest\u2019s Fortecue Metals Group revealed the depth of global ambitions to develop massive renewable power resources to produce green hydrogen. Mr Forrest also used the…<\/p>\n

The post Andrew Forrest on the road to renewables<\/a> appeared first on InnovationAus<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":626,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3189,3190,3191,3192,1892,3193],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14093"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14093"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15019,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14093\/revisions\/15019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}