Latest news with #Andrew'Twiggy'Forrest
Sky News AU
14-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Fortescue axes 90 green hydrogen jobs as Centre for Independent Studies' Aidan Morrison slams 'hopelessly impractical' energy source
Australia's largest green hydrogen backer has axed about 90 jobs working on the energy source, sparking criticism there is "no future" for the energy source as it is "hopelessly impractical" as an alternative fuel. Metal mining giant Fortescue, spearheaded by green hydrogen promoter Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest, on Tuesday laid off staff members who worked on hydrogen projects across the nation. The workers at Fortescue's hydrogen unit in Western Australia and its electrolyser facility, where hydrogen is separated from water to produce green energy, in Queensland were offered redundances or redeployment within the company. Fortescue's move sparked criticism from the Centre for Independent Studies' energy director Aidan Morrison who said efforts to prop up the energy source, many which are driven by the Albanese government, were futile. "This is what it looks like to see a concerted effort at consensus-farming slowly getting unwound: paper projects being quietly scrunched up and binned at politically convenient moments,' Mr Morrison told 'Green hydrogen never was a thing. It won't be in the future either. It was built on hopeful hand-waving from the outset. 'It's hopelessly impractical as an alternative fuel. It's extremely difficult to store and move. There's limited demand for hydrogen as a chemical feedstock, which is economically met by methane reformation from coal or gas. 'There's no evidence that demand at the volumes that renewables enthusiasts have been spruiking will emerge and there's no way that wind and solar could meet that demand at a reasonable price if it did." A Fortescue spokesperson said the mining giant was focused on developing a green iron industry in Australia with 'green hydrogen playing a critical part in making it a reality'. 'To ensure we can produce the large amounts of green hydrogen we need to make green iron, we are refocusing our efforts into the research and development of new technologies that will deliver green molecules at scale, efficiently and cost-effectively,' the spokesperson said. 'Fortescue has rapidly advanced its electrolyser technology capabilities. The science has now evolved, and we are moving with it.' It is understood the sackings come as Fortescue is looking to its Gladstone, Queensland, facility - called PEM50 - for the research and development efforts. The recent sackings come after Fortescue revealed 700 redundancies in July 2024 in a sweeping restructure of the company that consolidated its mining and energy arms into one division. Mr Forrest has spent years promoting the benefits of green hydrogen, with the company originally planning on producing 15 million tonnes per year by 2030. Labor's net-zero plans include a Hydrogen Production Tax Incentive as part of its Future Made in Australia Act. More than $6.5 billion will go toward the scheme, which provides $2 per kilogram of renewable hydrogen produced between 2027-28 and 2039-40. The policy came a year after Labor announced $2b towards its Hydrogen Headstart program, which looked to invest in large scale hydrogen projects.
Sky News AU
12-05-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Australia ‘failing' to reach all net-zero targets
Sky News host Liz Storer says Australia is 'failing' to reach all the net-zero targets. Australian mining magnate Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest is calling for a complete ban on all fossil fuels by 2040. Ms Storer said all the experts are 'up in arms' over Australia's inability to reach emission targets.
Sky News AU
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Andrew Forrest's latest ‘green fantasy' is ‘real stupid'
Sky News host James Macpherson discusses Australian mining magnate Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest's 'latest green fantasy'. Andrew Forrest is calling for a complete ban on all fossil fuels by 2040. Mr Macpherson said it is 'real stupid' for him to suggest no fossil fuels in Australia's energy grid.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Australian billionaire plots green energy revolution with power link to North Africa
An Australian mining billionaire is seeking support from Ed Miliband for a new multibillion-pound power link between Europe and North Africa. Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest, the founder and boss of iron ore giant Fortescue, has held discussions with the Energy Secretary in recent weeks about the project, which would aim to pipe clean energy generated from African solar farms to the European Continent. Fortescue wants to develop up to 100 gigawatts (GW) of clean power capacity in North Africa, with talks ongoing with various European governments about running multiple subsea cables alongside one another to bring over electricity. These would be able to transport up to 500 terrawatt hours (TWh) of electricity per year, roughly equivalent to Germany's entire annual consumption or 17 Hinkley Point C-sized nuclear power stations operating round the clock. It would be backed up by battery storage and potentially hydrogen-fired power plants, ensuring the proposed interconnector could provide round-the-clock supplies and potentially support for system stability as well. Fortescue has yet to confirm the interconnector's route but it is understood that power for Britain would be transported via other intermediary Western European countries. Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest, the founder and boss of iron ore giant Fortescue, is in discussions with the Energy Secretary -The mining company last year signed a deal with Belgium-based offshore cable maker Jan de Nul to look at potential manufacturing facilities in Morocco. It is the latest business to look at tapping the vast solar power of North Africa, with a £25bn project proposed by rival Xlinks also vying for support from the Government. In an interview with The Telegraph, Mr Forrest said: 'You've got the most impossible amount of energy being wasted every single day in North Africa right now, so we're developing a proposal to send the equivalent of 500TW to Europe. 'And I really want to stress, this is not intermittent. It would be 24/7, baseload power, just like what I need to run my company. 'It can't run on wind and solar going up and down, it can't stop for Christmas, it can't stop for Easter. It has to go every second of every day. 'That's when we need power, and that's when Britain and Europe do as well.' Mr Forrest founded Fortescue in 2003 and built it into one of the world's biggest iron ore producers. But following a near-death experience in 2016, he became involved in environmentalism and vowed to transform his company into a green energy champion. He has argued his interconnector scheme can help to cut the power bills of European households and businesses while improving grid stability. The billionaire insisted he was not seeking subsidies from the Government but wanted a deal that would commit the UK to buying electricity at market prices over a set period of time. 'I want Ed [Miliband] to say, 'we'll buy X at market [prices],'' he said. By comparison, the rival scheme proposed by Xlinks, which is backed by former Tesco boss Sir Dave Lewis, is seeking a so-called contract for difference which would guarantee the project a fixed 'strike price' for the power it supplies. The Xlinks cable would transport solar and wind power generated in Morocco's Saharan Tan-Tan region to the Devon coast, via 4,000km of underwater cables. Mr Miliband has pledged to cut household energy bills by £300 a year and make Britain's electricity system 95pc 'clean' by 2030. His target includes increasing the capacity of interconnectors linked to the UK from 10GW currently to up to 14GW. Iberian blackouts The Fortescue proposal has emerged just weeks after Spain and Portugal suffered unprecedented national blackouts, with electricity grid stability now high on the agenda. Some experts have raised concerns that cascading failures in the Spanish system, the cause of which are still unknown, may have been worsened by a reliance on renewable energy sources. This is because many solar and wind farms do not tend to provide so-called system inertia – the spinning momentum that turbines generate as a by-product – which can add to grid instability when there are sudden changes in supply and demand. Supply and demand must be kept balanced at all times on electricity systems for the lights to stay on. In the wake of the Spanish crisis, experts have also highlighted the relatively low number of interconnectors between the Iberian peninsula and the rest of the Continent. A key link with France went offline as the blackouts spread and automatic systems kicked in to protect vital infrastructure from being damaged. A spokesman for the British Government was approached for comment. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Sydney Morning Herald
27-04-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Twiggy branches out with VIP plus-one at society shindig
The years of turning up to climate events such as COP, Davos and the International Energy Agency has paid benefits for mining billionaire Dr Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest. Sorry, that should read 'technology, energy and metals' billionaire Dr Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest, who is 'accelerating commercial decarbonisation of industry, rapidly, profitably and globally'. Alas, not because the executive chairman of Fortescue has achieved his dream of green hydrogen, but because it allowed him late last week to step out in style at the Time 100 Most Influential People Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Centre in New York as the list's sole Australian entry. His plus one for the red carpet was former US ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy, although some media outlets including Yahoo News saw fit to make her the main event. CBD hears that Twiggy, who was afforded a Time cover story in February pictured in R. M. Williams clobber (owned by his investment company Tattarang), got on the magazine's radar through his connections with US climate influentials John Kerry and Al Gore. Loading The mag listed Forrest as a 'transformative titan' in an appreciation penned by Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency. 'Not content with building one of the world's biggest mining companies, he's now in the process of turning it from a major emitter into a clean-energy powerhouse,' Birol wrote. Emphasis on the process here folks.
