Infinite Blue Energy is in the driving seat as green hydrogen is set to become commercially viable within 10 years, pushing oil and gas majors to shift their business model. The company was recently featured in a Stockhead article. 

A new study commissioned by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) has concluded that green hydrogen is commercially viable by 2030.

The study was conducted across 25 Australian industry sectors, and focused on the competitiveness of green hydrogen compared with incumbent energy technologies.

It found that green hydrogen is already approaching cost competitiveness for the heavy vehicle industry in regard to trucking and buses.

While hydrogen was closest to achieving commercial parity as an alternative to petroleum products, displacing natural gas entirely is the key to reach scale at pace.

An Australian company that is standing at the forefront of this coming revolution is WA-based Infinite Blue Energy (IBE).

IBE owns the Arrowsmith hydrogen project in WA, which is expected to produce up to 25 tons of green hydrogen out of non-carbon sources, such as water, sun, and wind.

The company has raised $9 million in the last six weeks as part of its pre-IPO capital raising, which was oversubscribed and closed in just 22 working hours.

Speaking directly with Stockhead, IBE CEO, Stephen Gauld, said the company is getting a lot of interest from investors ahead of the listing. He explained:

“We had over 400 people registered to invest in our company as of last Thursday evening. So we’re getting a lot of visibility in what we’re doing. We’ve still got a bit of work to do, but we’re targeting a listing later this year as a current timeframe.” 

Green hydrogen

Hydrogen is the universe’s most abundant element, but it doesn’t appear pure in nature, and requires energy to separate – which is expensive right now.

The sector has moved away from “brown” hydrogen, which is produced using coal and the CO2 pollution associated with it.

Then came “grey” hydrogen, which is produced from natural gas where emissions are released into the air.

That eventually paved the way to “blue” hydrogen, where carbon is captured and stored underground.

But what the market wants is “green” hydrogen, which is produced 100 per cent from renewable energy, such as solar power and wind, all with zero carbon emissions.

This is the market IBE is targeting.

The company is progressing all the necessary preparations for the listing.  FEED work has been completed on Arrowsmith, and it is currently finalising its Environmental Protection Authority application. 

Gauld says:

“We’ve been doing some additional surveys to engage Aboriginal heritage sites, Aviation, noise, flicker and some further electrical magnetic tests as well.”

“We are striving to do a one-time submission in order to meet government expectations as efficiently as possible.” 

‘Game-changing for the world’

It’s not a surprise that Gauld wants to move fast, because the energy market is about to undergo seismic changes.

Last week, oil giants Shell, Exxon, and Chevron were stunned by courts and shareholder votes demanding reduction in total emissions.

Shell was ordered by a Dutch court to reduce its total emissions by 45 per cent by the year 2030, while Chevron and Exxon were rattled by shareholders’ demand to lower its fossil fuel business.

French giant Total meanwhile, has rebranded its name to Total Energies, to mark its shift to renewable energy.

Total’s climate strategy, which is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, was backed by 92 per cent of its shareholders. Gauld says:

“What happened recently is game-changing for the world. The world largest oil and gas companies will now be even more willing to transition from fossil fuels into renewables”.

Market potential

According to Gauld, there is about 120 million tons of hydrogen produced annually, but green hydrogen production is less than 3% of that.

The potential market is huge and is worth Trillions of dollars globally.

Asia Pacific alone has a market of around 6.5 million tons a year, with South Korea making up 2.5 millions of that.

Gauld explained:

“When you consider the scale and, the quantum required, It would be equivalent to ten worldscale Hydrogen plants just to supply the demand for South Korea alone.” 

He also believes that Australia is the perfect place to build the hydrogen industry due to our available land mass, solar, and wind resources.

According to Gauld, we are at the crossroads of the energy revolution, and investors would be well-placed to get into the industry now –  not only to help the environment, but also to get in at the ground level. Gauld says:

“I would encourage people to invest in IBE as we’re doing the right things for the environment. We’re particularly looking to the people who want to invest in renewable energies and watch the changes over the next 5-10 years, because the world we live in today will be completely different in 5-10 years time. Infinite Blue Energy is proud to be leading this transition and it is a great place to be.”

Read the full Stockhead article here.

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