Deal: ENGIE has been advised on the development, construction and financing of the first phase of Project Yuri, located in Western Australia. ARENA has been advised on its grant funding of the plant. 

Value: ARENA has conditionally approved a $47.5 million grant. 

Area: Energy and natural resources.

Key players: The DLA Piper team was led by Singapore-based partner Vincent Seah and Brisbane-based partner Tom Fotheringham. 

The pair were supported by partners Alyson Eather, Alex Jones, Alex Regan and Eagul Faigen, as well as senior associates Marnie Calli, Matthew Roberts, Rhys Rowland and Madison Orr.

The Allens team was led by partner Rob Watt, with support provided by partner Ellen Thomas, managing associates Jamie Guthrie and Jay Prasad, and associates Flynn O'Byrne-Inglis and George Bishop.

Deal significance: The development, construction and financing of the first phase of Project Yuri is pursuant to which the project will supply renewable hydrogen into Yara’s existing ammonia plant in the Pilbara, Western Australia.

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“This is a ground-breaking project that will create a whole new industry value chain, whereby the project will construct a plant consisting of a 10 MW electrolyser, an 18 MW PV array and an 8 MW battery energy storage system to harvest the abundant solar resource in Western Australia to produce renewable hydrogen to be supplied as a feedstock to produce renewable ammonia to service local and export markets,” a statement from DLA Piper explained.

Commenting on the deal, Brisbane-based partner Tom Fotheringham said: “Renewable hydrogen is quickly establishing itself as an energy source which will play a key role in the success of the energy transition and in achieving the aspired greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050.

“We are delighted to be able to work with ENGIE and its partners in the project to enable the development of Project Yuri and are proud to have worked on such a transformational project.”

Singapore-based partner Vincent Seah echoed a similar sentiment. 

“We are delighted to be able to support our long-time client, ENGIE, on this first-of-its-kind green hydrogen project,” he said.

“This is a great example of the capabilities of the firm globally, particularly in terms of our finance and projects teams across France, Singapore and Australia.”

Commenting on behalf of the Allens team, lead partner Rob Watt said:

"Green hydrogen production is touted to become a key technology for energy storage and carbon emission reduction. We are delighted to have worked with ARENA on its funding of this project, which takes Australia another step closer to becoming a global leader in clean energy and renewable hydrogen export,' he said.

"The project comes amid a building market focus on Australia's energy transition, and in particular the prioritising of hydrogen as part of the National Hydrogen Strategy."