Fortescue announces US partnership on green hydrogen

Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) has announced it will partner with the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to create green jobs in America and advance green hydrogen production and technologies.

The company says the relationship will catalyse hundreds of millions of dollars of value and investment in the North American energy transition and economy.

FFI expects to invest $80 million over 10 years in research projects with NREL. The collaboration has the potential to create more than 350 high-quality research, engineering and management jobs. Combined with the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), this investment is expected to catalyse a strong increase in manufacturing in the green industrial ecosystem, which must be established if the world is to change to a zero-pollution future.

According to FFI, NREL has a 45-year track record of world-leading, cutting-edge science and research development. Beyond the direct 350 science and technology careers, this initiative is expected to — upon the commercialisation of technology to the world — lower emissions and indirectly create thousands of new jobs in science, technology, manufacturing and green energy.

The announcement builds on FFI’s new US Technology Hub, based in the green energy research and development community of Colorado. FFI’s technology investments in the Commonwealth, European Union, Australasia and now in North America ensure that Fortescue will stay leading-edge in the massive new green science, technology and manufacturing ecosystem, the company says.

“NREL’s dream is to have its green technology commercialised. Our dream is to commercialise their green technology,” said Forrest. “We are planning this investment because of NREL’s exemplary scientific and research competence in this technology and because of the world-leading green investment environment in America due to the IRA.

“I thank Senator Joe Manchin and the US representatives for making the IRA a reality and catapulting the US from laggard to leader in what will be the largest energy source in the world.”

“NREL is committed to making sure our research gets to market, where it can improve everyday life and strengthen our global economy,” said NREL Laboratory Director Martin Keller. “To do that, we continually seek partners equally interested in advancing lowest-emissions energy technologies that can be brought to commercial scale. We know that the swiftest pathways to achieve impact are by working with motivated partners such as FFI, with the resources and intent to drive global change.

“The NREL team is eager to get to work with FFI and our collaborators and partners across the Colorado hydrogen ecosystem.”

Alongside the NREL collaboration and establishment of the Technology Hub, FFI also has plans to establish further collaborative research relationships with the Colorado School of Mines, University of Colorado and Colorado State University, as well as other leading research labs and universities across the USA.

The initial term of the collaboration between NREL and FFI will be three years, with the ability to extend the term to create a long-term relationship.