Asian Renewable Energy Hub

The Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH) is a proposal to create the world's largest renewable energy plant in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It was first proposed in 2014, with plans for the project changing several times since then. As of November 2020, Intercontinental Energy is planning to build a mixture of wind power and solar energy power generators which would generate up to 26 gigawatts of power.[1]

Up to 1,743 wind turbines of 290 metres (950 ft) in height would be accommodated in 668,100 hectares (1,651,000 acres) of land, and 18 arrays of solar panels each generating 600 megawatts would cover 1,418 hectares (3,500 acres).[1] It is to be located in the Shire of East Pilbara, about 30 km (19 mi) inland from 80 Mile Beach, with the nearest settlement on the map being Mandora Station.[2]

The Government of Western Australia gave environmental approval for phase one of the project (15,000MW of power generation, across 6,500 km² (2,500 sq mi) in October 2020. The project initially aimed to supply power via an undersea cable (to Indonesia and perhaps on to Singapore[1]) with a capacity of 15GW,[3] using four cables, each 3,000 km (1,900 mi) long.[1] However, having explored the potential of exporting green hydrogen via the manufacture of ammonia, it was able to aim for an extra 11GW.[3] The plant would use the electricity generated by the wind turbines and solar power to extract hydrogen from water. The hydrogen is then mixed with nitrogen extracted from the air to produce ammonia.[1]

The ammonia is easily transported using tankers, and opens up the possibility for more markets around the world.[1]

The first ten years of the project is expected to create 5,000 jobs, with about 3,000 ongoing jobs anticipated over its 50-year lifetime.[3] It is planned to create a coastal town between Port Hedland and Broome, and a desalination plants will provide most of the water supply needed for both human consumption and plant cooling purposes.[1]

Given the status of "major project" by the federal government,[4] the proposed development of the plant enables the goals set under the Western Australian Renewable Hydrogen Strategy to be brought forward from 2040 to 2030.[2]