With new solar coming online or joining the queue at the back of the grid bottleneck, WePower’s Marketplace acts as a connective tissue between renewable energy generators and the coal intensive steel manufacturing industry. WePower then, is helping to build Australia’s green steel industry of the future. WePower’s Harley Tempest sat down with pv magazine to discuss.
pv magazine Australia: WePower‘s Marketplace has the potential to form part of the connective tissue between the coal intensive steel manufacture of the past, and a future Australian green steel industry for domestic use and export. How can we make this transition and what role can WePower play?
Harley Tempest, Head of Sales, WePower Network: WePower connects steel manufacturers directly with renewable energy producers. Steel manufacturers have a choice of renewable energy producers allowing access to local projects who are developing initiatives such as green hydrogen. By supporting local producers the steel industry will be financially supporting these projects and bringing green hydrogen into production sooner.
With most carbon-intensive industries based in NSW and QLD, and both states with long pipelines of renewable energy awaiting the development of Renewable Energy Zones (REZs), how does WePower see these manufacturing hubs integrating renewables?
The simple answer is, manufacturing does not need to wait for REZs to come into production, we have projects across all NEM states that can support industry now. Furthermore, with WePower acting as the “connective tissue”, we can provide the forum where these projects can market themselves directly to any interested manufacturer. This is significantly more efficient than one-to-one interactions, leading to more successful transactions.
What the REZs will do is open potential for larger scale hydrogen production, being conveniently close to existing steel facilities means the cost of transport will be lower, ultimately benefitting the steel industry.