Our Corporate Finance Associate, Jack Colreavy, and our Equities Trader, Joseph Raad, discuss the renewable energy sector in Australia, focusing on green hydrogen.

Companies In The Renewable Energy Space

Barclay Pearce Capital works with a variety of clients in the Renewable Energy Sector.

H2X Global Limited

H2X was founded on a shared vision to harness the power of renewable energy to take the automotive sector into industry 5.0. Their mission is to create Australia’s first hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle manufacturing company.

Verdant Earth Technologies

Founded in 2018, Verdant Earth Technologies is working to achieve net-zero emissions through the development of green hydrogen and renewable energy assets. Why? Because it’s impossible to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 if we continue to use our resources the way we do today. 

Infinite Blue Energy

Infinite Blue Energy is committed and aligned to transitioning WA as an emerging net-zero emissions economy. The company is well placed to be the pioneer in the renewable hydrogen industry in practical and strategic ways.

Sweetman Renewables

Sweetman Renewables Ltd has acquired the sawmilling complex formerly owned by the Sweetman family at Millfield, near Cessnock, New South Wales, Australia. Additionally, Sweetman Renewables has acquired forested land also previously owned by the Sweetman family. Further land is likely to be acquired in the future to expand both sawmilling and related biomass processing activities.

Read the conversation:

Joseph Raad:

"There's been a lot of news as of late in regards to the renewable energy space in Australia in particular green hydrogen, Jack, do you care to elaborate on these points?"

Jack Colreavy:

"Yeah, there has been a lot of news of late and that's because there's been a lot of exciting announcements from state governments around grants and funding for the green hydrogen sector.

The first one I'll start off with is Fortescue Future Industries announcing a 1 billion electrolyzer factory for Gladston, which is a really interesting development."

Joseph Raad:

"And this is a total of a $1 billion operation that will be funded towards overtime. But Jack, for those who don't know what an electrolyzer is, can you please elaborate on that?"

Jack Colreavy:

"Yes, sure. So an electrolyzer is the key component for hydrogen production or green hydrogen production in particular. It's the machine that splits the water atoms into hydrogen and oxygen and thus producing the hydrogen. So these components will be in extremely high demand going forward. So as Australia is going to be a key producer of green hydrogen, this will bode well for them having access to this key component, but it also opens up a huge export market for FFI to export them to the globe. And I imagine that would have positive impacts on the FMG share price, right Joey?"

Joseph Raad:

"Yes, of course. So Fortescue Future Industries isn't spinning off as its own listed entity. It will stay under the Fortescue Metals code. So we should expect a lot of investor demand to come through for Fortescue moving forward.

This is a great project obviously as Australia is looking to become a world leader in renewable energies and green hydrogen. So a push like this is really cementing our spot globally. And I think what's quite comforting is that Fortescue will be allocating 10% of the total end pack to the project. Investors can be rest assured that funding will go there accordingly.

Jack, we just touched on Queensland's latest initiative, what about New South Wales?"

Jack Colreavy: 

"Yeah. It's a real state of origin tussle there with the very next day, the New South Wales government announcing a $3 billion grant program, hoping to stimulate up to 80 billion in investment in green hydrogen. 

So while there aren't,  to my knowledge, there aren't any ASX listed companies involved in New South Wales, green hydrogen production, this bodes really well for some Barclay Pearce private clients, which will be going public next year. These include Verdant Earth Technologies and Sweetman Renewables, which are in the biomass to hydrogen industry, but then also H2X Global who are looking to build hydrogen fuel cell vehicles."

Joseph Raad:

"Yeah, that was a great point you just touched on that we don't really have any green hydrogen producers in the states at the moment. However, we did see that sentiment kind of pushed forward some stocks over the last week in particular, we had the new ASX ETF, hydrogen ETF with the ticker code HGEN come on board, and we've seen that perform very well over the last handful of days, as have other companies such as Province Resources, Pure Hydrogen and Hazer. As you said, these won't have a direct impact on any ASX stocks."

Jack Colreavy:

"No, no, not at this stage, but what that does is it attracts investment to New South Wales for green hydrogen producers.

So for example, Infinite Blue Energy, another Barclay Pearce client who will be going public next year that could potentially attract them to want to set up a project in New South Wales. Also, they just announced a new non-executive director, Chris Salisbury, who's the ex Rio Chief Executive of iron ore. He's also the chairman of Deep Yellow uranian play and BCI minerals. So, a really highly experienced candidate joining their board continues to add credibility, not only to IBE, but to green hydrogen in the future, and to solidify itself as a future key export for Australia."

Joseph Raad:

"Great point. Just touching on that a bit further, I remember you and I had a discussion about this not too long ago that a lot of investors were quite concerned that the amount of money that would have been needed to fund it towards hydrogen was immense and that they needed to be a lot of government support and privatised support as well. But moving forward after these announcements of Queensland, New South Wales, how do you see this fairing out for other states?"

Jack Colreavy:

"Yeah, there'll be a real tussle I think between the states to kind of attract the investment, we saw New South Wales come out with that announcement right after Queensland, so there are all indications that Victoria is soon to announce green hydrogen funding. WA has really led the space, announcing ambitious targets there, and they've also got a hydrogen minister, Alannah MacTiernan. So WA is really was at the forefront of promoting green hydrogen production in Australia."

Joseph Raad:

"So there's currently a huge opportunity for hydrogen investment in Australia. For more information on how you can enter the market, please click the link in the description below."

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