An Australian first to power Denham

November 27 2020

Horizon Power is helping lead Australia’s energy transition with a move towards greater adoption of renewable energy through a commitment to build Australia’s first renewable hydrogen demonstration plant in Denham, Western Australia.

The project will be a first-of-its-kind demonstration which will test the technical capability of hydrogen as a dispatchable power source in remote microgrids in anticipation of the technology becoming cost competitive in the future. 

Horizon Power Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Unwin said the Denham Hydrogen Demonstration Plant will extend Horizon Power’s knowledge and technical capability of hydrogen operating systems and test how to integrate and deploy this technology into remote diesel microgrids, common across regional Western Australia.

“This plant will demonstrate how hydrogen can reliably produce dispatchable power for our towns currently dependent on diesel fuel power systems and allow us to transition our network away from higher emission generating sources and meet our target of no new diesel generation systems from 2025,” Ms Unwin said.

“This technology has the potential to be an environmental game changer for many remote towns in Western Australia and other similar locations around Australia, and allow greater uptake of reliable cleaner, greener renewable energy sources in the future.”

The Denham Hydrogen Demonstration Plant will feature a 704 kilowatt (kW) solar farm, 348 kW electrolyser, hydrogen compression and storage and 100 kW fuel cell and use renewable energy to power an electrolyser, which will produce hydrogen that can be stored for later use in a fuel cell to deliver electricity. The plant will connect into the Denham hybrid power system.

The plant will generate 526 MWh per year, which is equivalent to the energy required to power up to 100 residential houses in Denham.

Construction will start August 2021, with commissioning to commence in December the same year.

Horizon Power’s appointed contractors will explore opportunities to engage with local businesses and suppliers.

The Project is receiving funding from both the State and Federal Government’s, with Horizon Power securing $2.6 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency. A further $5.7 million will be provided by the Western Australian Government as part of its Recovery Plan. This includes $1 million from the Western Australian Renewable Hydrogen Fund.