On 29 November, over 150 industry stakeholders gathered in Sydney to share knowledge and discuss ways to position Australia as a future green export superpower.

Focusing on production of low emissions metals and the establishment of an Australian green hydrogen industry, the event opened with a keynote speech from Dr Alan Finkel, who spoke about a ‘use it where you make it’ philosophy to domestically produce (and export) higher value products, such as green iron, green nitrogenous fertilisers, and green liquid fuels.
 

Image: Dr Alan Finkel delivers his keynote speech at the Insights Forum. Credit: Kerrie Brewer.
 

Read the key takeaways and slides from the Insights Forum 

Read Dr Alan Finkel’s keynote speech 

ARENA's Insights Forum was a fantastic platform to present and discuss the key findings of the recently launched report A Roadmap for Decarbonising Australian Alumina Refining, commissioned by ARENA and prepared by Deloitte in consultation with Alcoa, Rio Tinto and South32.

The Roadmap identifies the potential to reduce on-site alumina refining emissions by up to 98% through the adoption of four key technologies: mechanical vapour recompression (MVR), electric boilers, electric calcination, and hydrogen calcination.

Alcoa and Rio Tinto provided insights on opportunities and challenges to integrate some of these technologies at different alumina refineries.
 

Image: Refined alumina. [Source: A Roadmap for Decarbonising Australian Alumina Refining]

Read the AIF Summary for key takeaways from the session 

Read the Roadmap for Decarbonising Australian Alumina Refining  

Read Alcoa’s MVR Evaporation Feasibility Study 

Read Alcoa’s MVR Retrofit and Commercialisation Report 

Read ARENA’s MVR Summary Report 

The Low Emission Metals stream hosted a hot discussion around the opportunities and actions needed to decarbonise iron and steel production in Australia as well as the role of the Australian ore in the international steel industry.

Leading universities and key industry players such as Rio Tinto, Calix, BlueScope, GFG and ETI, shared their views on promising technology pathways, challenges and successes from existing projects, future plans and enabling factors.
 

Image: Panel discussion at AIF. From left to right: Michael Buckley (Rio Tinto), Phil Hodgson (Calix), Andrew Mcclure (BlueScope), Wayne Harris (GFG), Kylie Turner (ETI). Credit: Kerrie Brewer.
 

Read the AIF Summary for key takeaways from the session 
Read BlueScope’s Phase 1 Report 

Read BlueScope’s Lessons Learnt Report #2 

At this year’s event, the Green Hydrogen stream featured three unique sessions.

The Scaling-up and Exports session examined results of feasibility studies and plans for some of the largest green hydrogen and ammonia projects in the world. 

A Heavy Transport session focused on this critical part of the supply chain for exporting LEM from Australia, and explored lessons from projects building and operating Fuel Cell Electric Truck projects and hydrogen refuelling stations.

Lastly, a discussion around certification schemes, as green hydrogen is currently expensive, and how customers need a good reason to pay a premium for what is physically identical to more carbon-intensive hydrogen.
 

Image: Green Hydrogen session. Credit: Kerrie Brewer.

Read the AIF Summary for key takeaways from the session 

Read Ark Energy’s latest knowledge sharing report on fuel cell electric trucks 

Solar PV

• The sixth report in the Generator Operations Series: Unlocking Curtailed Solar Energy on the NEM Through Storage estimates the potential generation, associated revenue and emissions reduction benefits that could be captured by co-locating large-scale battery storage at 44 NEM connected solar farms. 

System security

The University of Melbourne and Meridian Energy Australia have several new reports published on their Wind Forecasting Demonstration Project:

• This lessons learnt report outlines the lessons the project has recently learnt regarding clustered wind turbine-based forecasting and wind turbine cross correlations for the Mt. Mercer wind farm.
• This report quantifies the complex interactions between short-term renewable generation forecasts, demand forecasts, generator unit commitment and economic dispatch.
• This final knowledge sharing report captures the whole Wind Forecasting Demonstration Project including data collection, physical analysis, machine learning approaches, and results.

Distributed Energy Resources

• Project MATCH aims to establish tools to understand how DER performs in the field during power system disturbances. This report presents the findings from the first year of the Project and includes the development of analytical tools, automated data collection triggers and findings on compliance.

Visit ARENA's Knowledge Bank for more.