SB Energy , a Japanese wholly-owned subsidiary of SoftBank Group and Elixir Energy, an Australian energy company announced their signing of a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on a framework to cooperate on research and development of a green hydrogen production project in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia.
Based on this MOU, SB Energy and Elixir intend to proceed with certain prefeasibility studies in order to first realize a small-scale pilot project with the eventual goal of jointly developing a gigawatt-class green hydrogen production project in Mongolia.
Elixir owns the Nomgon IX Coal-bed Methane project, which is located in the South Gobi region of Mongolia and considers that there are potential synergies between its strategy of exploring for natural gas and green hydrogen production related opportunities. SB Energy operates “Tsetsii Wind Farm”, a wind power plant generating 50MW in the Gobi Desert through a joint venture established in Mongolia and wishes to explore the possibility of utilizing renewable energy resources in Mongolia to develop green hydrogen energy. Both parties have been gathering renewable energy data in the Gobi region. The Parties will cooperate to complement each other in order to jointly develop and achieve commercialization of the Project utilizing their respective strengths. The development of this Project would mark the first entry by SB Energy into the green hydrogen business.
“In the context of ultimately achieving global carbon neutrality, there is a growing demand for green hydrogen energy which is produced by electrolyzing water using renewable energy and which produces zero carbon dioxide emissions,” said Shigeki Miwa, Representative Director & CEO of SB Energy “As a leading renewable energy company in Japan, SB Energy would like to work with Elixir to explore the feasibility of producing green hydrogen in Mongolia in order to optimally leverage Mongolia's extraordinary wind and solar energy resources.”
“We are very pleased that a company of the calibre of SB Energy shares our view of the potential for green hydrogen in Mongolia,” said Neil Young, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Elixir .
“The country’s excellent renewable resources and proximity to potential hydrogen markets makes Mongolia a potential Tier One location for future green hydrogen production and we look forward to accelerating our efforts on this front under this new partnership.”
