Plug Power and Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) have joined forces on the development, having on Thursday (Oct 14) inked a letter of intent for a joint 50-50 venture for the factory.

Already, the duo has said they hope to expand the gigafactory’s offering beyond PEM electrolysers, and to also offer other refuelling and storage infrastructure in the future.

To support the project, Plug Power will supply its electrolyser and fuel cell technology and FFI will bring its advanced manufacturing capabilities to the partnership.

On the news, Julie Shuttleworth, CEO of FFI, said, “We need solar panel, wind towers and electrolyser in such scale that we need to produce them where we use them – including Australia.

“We have enough solar and wind in Australia to power many countries of the world. Working together with Plug Power, we can create this future.

The agreement will also see FFI purchase 250MW of Plug Power’s electrolyse solutions for its Australian project. These will be supplied from its New York-based factory in 2022.

Welcoming the collaboration, Andy Marsh, President and CEO of Plug Power, said, “Australia and New Zealand will be a big market 0opportunity for our green hydrogen ecosystem of electrolysers, fuel cells and green hydrogen.

“This year, we will do megawatts of deployment in these market, and gigawatts in the coming years.”