Australia’s largest green hydrogen project drops ammonia plans, halves to 15 GW power-only

Australia’s largest proposed green hydrogen project has dropped its hydrogen and ammonia production plans and halved in scale from 26 gigawatts to 15 GW, reverting to a power-only development. InterContinental Energy, the sole remaining lead investor in the Australian Renewable Energy Hub after BP’s exit in mid-2025, said it has terminated its application for the larger 26 GW proposal and will proceed with the 15 GW wind and solar plan that Western Australia originally approved in 2020.

The revised project will now focus on selling renewable electricity to Pilbara miners and data centers rather than producing green hydrogen or ammonia for export. ICE said ammonia production could still occur at the nearby Boodarie Strategic Industrial Area using AREH power, but it would no longer be part of the core project scope. Earlier investor CWP Global exited in 2025, and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency contributed A$22 million in January 2026 to investigate hydrogen production — a study now overtaken by the strategic pivot.

The downgrade is a setback for global green ammonia supply ambitions. At full scale, AREH had been projected to produce 1.6 million metric tons of green hydrogen or up to 9 million metric tons of green ammonia annually — volumes that would have made it one of the world’s largest sources of low-carbon nitrogen feedstock. The retreat follows a pattern of green hydrogen megaproject delays worldwide as developers confront high capital costs, uncertain offtake, and tightening investor expectations for near-term returns.

Source: Boiling Cold