By its own reckoning, Ark Energy is accelerating Australia's low carbon transition.
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The giant Queensland-based Korean subsidiary says it's not a question of when the nation's hardest-to-abate sector makes the switch to green hydrogen and zero emissions but one of who within moves first.
The race will be to deliver the benefits firstly to the domestic market, then the world.
If it all sounds too much like corporate hype, the 1.2 million thin-film solar panels lining the road at the entrance to Ark's Sun Metals Zinc refinery, south of Townsville, suggest otherwise.
CEO Daniel Kim says change is imminent all the way down to the company's name, as it shifts from Australia Resources Korea to Australia Renewables Korea.
While the 25-year-old Sun zinc refinery is Queensland's second largest site of consumed electricity, it earlier this year took a 30 per cent stake in the 923 megawatt MacIntyre wind farm near Warwick.
The facility will power 63 per cent of its energy needs, something parent company Korea Zinc says "reflects our commitment to renewable energy in Australia".
To the same end, Sun spent $200 million to build the 125-megawatt solar farm at its Townsville property in 2018.
Yet its next project, Sun Metals Hydrogen Hub at the same site, is being hailed as a major Australian export asset.
The intention is for it to decarbonise Korea Zinc's energy supply and help make it the safest, most competitive producer of green hydrogen in the world.
Kim says Ark is moving ahead and wants state and federal governments to jump aboard because demand growth for green hydrogen will be exponential particularly among Australia's northeast Asian neighbours.
"We really believe there's enormous potential for Townsville and North Queensland to really take a leadership role in demonstrating the opportunities that come from the new green economy," he says.
As the subsidiary positions itself to become the first company worldwide to refine and produce green zinc wholly from renewables, others have also sensed opportunity.
The enormous demand for green hydrogen has spurred the likes of iron ore billionaire Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest.
His Fortescue Future Industries has announced plans for the world's largest green energy hydrogen manufacturing facility in central Queensland's Gladstone.
The plant will manufacture infrastructure and equipment like electrolysers, cabling and wind turbines that will be exported across the world.
In the same breath, Forrest has launched an attack on public funding for gas, coal and carbon capture to make hydrogen fuel, which are key elements of Australian policy ahead of the Glasgow climate summit.
"Blue hydrogen is not clean and, tragically, most governments - without a scintilla of science - are throwing tens of billions of dollars in subsidies at it," he says.
With the green age also comes the increasing importance of Queensland's maritime facilities.
Townsville Port Chief Operating Officer Drew Penny has declared expansion vital to accommodate the elevated clean energy demands among the country's major exporters.
He says 22 per cent of the departures he oversees head to South Korea, with China and Indonesia sitting second and third.
The federal government-commissioned Opportunities for Australia from Hydrogen Exports 2018 report puts projected demand for hydrogen in Japan by 2040 at 4,131,000 tonnes, with South Korea at 2,175,000 tonnes.
"We talk about hydrogen and having a clean energy hub within our future port expansion area - that's about making sure we're not just looking at it from our own perspective," Penny says.
"But how do we help others trade in those new commodities in the future?
"There's a real tide that's turned and there's so much momentum for hydrogen ... and how much of a game changer that's going to be in a range of areas."
Facilitating the production, usage and export of green hydrogen is one of the port's strategic 2050 goals.
It has committed $17 million to environmental monitoring in the plan plus a 30-year 1.6 billion expansion to cater for an influx in demand from local energy hubs and defence.
Penny says the port will also be carbon neutral in operations under renewable energy use by 2025.
Back on dry land, Ark believes as a first mover in the hydrogen market, what it produces will provide a tailored solution to decarbonising the sector and refining zinc and heavy haulage.
Part of its plan is to engage deployment options for a series of 154-tonne hydrogen-powered trucks, with talks already underway with the Queensland government and the state's co-ordinator-general.
"We're prepared to pull our own weight and actually lead the charge and demonstrate corporate leadership here," Kim says.
"Hydrogen produced from renewable energy does provide that true green solution to decarbonising these notoriously hard to abate industry sectors in which we operate in, including zinc refining and heavy haulage.
"So of course if we're any chance of getting to net zero, every industry sector has to play its part."
Australian Associated Press