Australia-based Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) has acquired a 60 % stake in the Dutch-based High yield Energy Technologies (HyET) Group. FFI also provided the majority share of financing for expanding HyET Solar’s Dutch Solar PV factory.

The acquisition marks an important milestone in FFI’s vision to produce affordable green hydrogen, intending to supply 15 million tons of green hydrogen globally by 2030. The company has begun the design study for a 1 GW power foil factory in Australia.

HyET Group consists of two companies – HyET Solar and HyET Hydrogen. HyET Solar is a manufacturer of thin-film flexible solar modules called Powerfoil. HyET Hydrogen is in the field of electrochemical hydrogen compression. HyET is headquartered at Arnhem in the Netherlands and is expanding to the USA with a subsidiary, HyET Hydrogen LLC, based in California.

“At this scale, we aim to rapidly drive costs down at a greater rate than is achievable with conventional Solar PV technology,” said Julie Shuttleworth AM, CEO, FFI. “HyET Hydrogen’s technology will support FFI in reducing costs in other areas of the green hydrogen supply chain.”

“FFI’s goal is to become the world’s leading, fully renewable energy and green products company. The addition of HyET Solar and HyET Hydrogen to our portfolio of FFI companies builds on our commitment to developing technologies needed to tackle emissions and global warming,” she said.

SuperNova NV, the founding partner of the HyET Group of companies, and Royal Vopak of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, remain the only other shareholders in both companies. FFI and SuperNova NV have also, in principle, agreed to extend their cooperation to other current and future HyET Group activities.

“We are incredibly pleased to have joined forces with Fortescue Future Industries. Not only does this enable us to contribute much more effectively to the creation of renewable energy infrastructure, but now we also can strongly increase the scale of our activities, the two important goals since we started up our companies,” said Rombout Swanborn, founder and director, HyET Hydrogen and HyET Solar.

Earlier this year, the Government of Western Australia received 65 expressions of interest for producing and exporting hydrogen at the greenfields Oakajee Strategic Industrial Area.

In September 2020, Australia’s Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor said the government is expected to invest $18 billion through new low-emission technologies to reduce carbon emissions over the next ten years.