Ammonia in, coal out for Japan power trial
- Reading on The Australian Financial Review
On October 7th, the trend towards more ambitious decarbonization is accelerating as United Nations climate talks in Glasgow draw closer.
In Japan, JERA, the power Giant, started its 4-year trial to substitute hydrogen-rich ammonia for coal, aiming to achieve a 20% ammonia co-firing share in its Hekinan thermal power station by 2024 and all other stations by 2035, towards the net-zero emissions by 2050. As Japan is Australia's biggest buyer of fossil fuel, the move indicates the potential reduction of demand from AUS in coal and LNG gradually.
POSCO, the South Korean steel producer, has aspirations for decarbonization in its steel and power generation. One of its iron ore suppliers, Fortescue Metals Group in Australia, has set their target for carbon emission by 2040 with its embryonic hydrogen business.
BlueScope, the Australian steel-maker, has also pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The industrial energy user is spending $150 million to reduce carbon emissions in the next five years, facing the challenge of an absence of large-scale commercially proven "green" technology in steelmaking that was commercially available.
To actively drive this transformation requires a long-term plan and the alignment of investors and companies. At the same time, Global investment banks have grown a lot in their green portfolio. For example, Macquarie's Green Investment Group (GIG)secured rights to develop offshore wind farm and acquired its first utility-scale battery storage portfolio in the UK, established partnerships to bid on offshore projects in Europe, launched Cero Generation, a specialist European solar development platform, and expanded into Japan, the Philippines and India by its portfolio company.
