Australian financial services company Macquarie Group has pledged to invest in the 11 GW Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH) solar and wind hybrid project in the Pilbara region, in Western Australia. The AUD22bn (US$16bn) AREH project was originally meant to have an installed capacity of 6 GW but has been scaled up twice, first to 9 GW and later to 11 GW.
The project would entail 7.5 GW of wind turbines, and more than 3.5 GW of solar PV arrays, which would together generate around 40 TWh/year.
Around 5 GW of power capacity would generate power for large energy users in the Pilbara region, such as new and expanded mines, downstream mineral processing and the large scale production of hydrogen for domestic and export markets, while the remaining 6 GW could be exported to South East Asia (Indonesia and Singapore) through undersea high voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission cables.
The project is in the planning stage since 2014 ans is looking forward to securing environmental approval from the state of Western Australia by the end of 2019 and secure financing around 2021. The construction is then expected to last for another 6-7 years.