Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest
outlined ambitious plans on Wednesday to build a renewable energy business,
aiming to compete with oil giants to provide low-cost green energy globally.
Billionaire Forrest, who turned Fortescue Metals
Group over two decades into the world’s fourth-biggest iron ore miner, said
Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) has already signed preliminary deals, such as
in Papua New Guinea and Africa, and a team of executives is looking for other
partners.
“We are building a portfolio of renewable assets,
energy producing assets around the world,” Forrest, Fortescue’s chairman, told
the company’s annual meeting via videolink from Paraguay.
He said Fortescue has so far committed A$1 billion
($731 million) out to 2023 for the project, and expected also to use
off-balance sheet financing.
FORTESCUE, WHICH HAS
COMMITTED ITS OWN OPERATIONS TO BE CARBON NEUTRAL BY 2040, HAS BEEN
ACCUMULATING LICENCES AND PATENTS OVER THE PAST FIVE YEARS TO FURTHER IT PLANS
“With scale and innovation, we will be able to ramp
up supply of green hydrogen and green ammonia to deliver low cost energy
reliably at industrial scale to customers all over the world.”
Hydrogen and ammonia fuel cells are set to be used in
transport and shipping, ammonia in fertiliser and hydrogen also in steel
making, he said.
Forrest, whose net worth is estimated at nearly $17
billion, said the company’s initial target would be to have 235 gigawatts (GW)
of installed energy capacity but did not provide a timeline.
Such a target would be “extremely challenging,” said
Gero Farruggio, head of global renewables at research firm Rystad Energy
Farruggio. Energy major BP, by comparison, plans to produce 50GW of renewable
energy by 2030.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, Forrest has been
touring the world and said executives have visited 23 countries to shortlist
partners and plan to visit 24 more, with investments tied to human rights
obligations, he said.
“We will be insisting on equal opportunities. Equal
economic outcomes for boys and girls because that will drive employment
opportunities.”
Fortescue, which has committed its own operations to
be carbon neutral by 2040, has been accumulating licences and patents over the
past five years to further it plans.
Forrest’s net wealth tripled over the last year,
according to Australia’s Financial Review Rich List.
Fortescue posted a record net profit of $4.74 billion
last year on a mix of high prices for iron ore and better margins for its
products.
FMG shares ended down 1.8%, compared to a 1.8% gain
in the wider market.
($1 = 1.3689 Australian dollars)
Mining.com