Fortescue Metals Acquires 60% Stake in RE Firm HyET

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Fortescue Metals’s green energy unit has bought a 60% stake in Dutch-based renewable firm High yield Energy Technologies (HyET) Group in a bid to cut costs and boost green energy production.

“HyET Hydrogen’s technology will support FFI in reducing costs in other areas of the green hydrogen supply chain,” said Julie Shuttleworth, chief executive officer of FFI.

Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) is part of Fortescue Metals’ plan to become the world’s first major supplier of green iron ore, and aims to supply 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen globally by 2030.

To tackle runaway global warming, politicians have to look beyond catchphrases like “clean hydrogen” and understand the research behind renewable energy sources before making decisions, Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest recently told CNBC.

“I’m asking them to do the academic analysis and research. Just don’t fall, like we are in Australia and internationally, for the quick sound bites like ‘clean hydrogen,'” Forrest said. “That’s like clean coal or cancer-free tobacco.”

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While demand for hydrogen has grown more than three-fold since 1975 and continues to rise, the IEA says almost all of it is supplied from burning fossil fuels.

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Fortescue Metals, the world’s No.4 iron ore producer, is pursuing some of the most ambitious green plans in the industry with its efforts to diversify into renewable energy and green hydrogen through FFI.

“While there are power shortages, don’t be fooled into thinking that is from renewable energy,” Forrest has said. “Without that renewable energy feeding into the grid, and feeding into all the sources of consumption, yeah we’d be in real trouble.”

The world needs leadership in its push to deploy capital and resources into developing renewable electricity and shift away from fossil fuel, he argues.

FFI, which plans to spend between $400 million and $600 million in the year to June 2022 on developing green transport and decarbonisation technologies, expects to cut down costs at its Powerfoil factory in Australia from the acquisition. FFI Chief Executive Officer Julie Shuttleworth A M has stated that the company has already begun a design study for the 1 GW facility.

As part of the deal, FFI will provide a majority share of financing for the expansion of HyET Solar’s Dutch Solar photovoltaics factory. Financial terms of the stake acquisition were not disclosed.

“We need to remember the Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stones, we need to remember that this is a better source of fuel. This is completely carbon free. It’s infinite. Let’s get after it,” says Forrest.