Hydrogen

The New South Wales Government is expecting the state’s green hydrogen industry to boom after the legislation underpinning its Hydrogen Strategy was approved by the parliament, unlocking up to $3 billion in government incentives to rapidly increase the scale and competitiveness of the industry.

Kallis Energy Investments is proposing a whopping 6 GW renewable hydrogen project in South Australia, with founder Terry Kallis telling pv magazine Australia the project will not seek to connect its 3 GW of planned solar and wind assets to the already congested grid.

In a major milestone for New South Wales, green hydrogen is now being injected into the state’s gas network for the first time with energy infrastructure company Jemena confirming its $15 million Western Sydney Green Hydrogen Hub has started making the zero-emissions fuel available for home, business and transport use.

South Australia’s nascent green hydrogen industry has attracted financial support from the Japanese Government which has awarded funding to the Marubeni Corporation which is planning to export the zero-emissions fuel produced using large-scale wind and solar energy in the state to the Indo-Pacific region.

Fortescue Future Industries, founded by billionaire Andrew Forrest, has already received planning approval for its 2 GW electrolyser factory at Gladstone despite announcing the plan just five weeks ago.

Two Australian companies, hydrogen fuel cell startup H2X and emerging renewables developer Thales New Energy, have signed an agreement with a Malaysian state-owned corporation to develop a 1.3 GW hydrogen export facility powered by hydroelectricity in the Malaysian state of Sarawak.

In this week’s edition of pv magazine’s Hydrogen Stream, Australian projects took centre stage including Woodside announcing it had secured land for its H2TAS project, an MoU signed between Perth-based metals manufacturing company Unique Metals and Energy consultancy Xodus, as well as ARENA’s funding for Sun Metals zinc refinery in Townsville.

Western Australia leads the world in successfully implementing renewables-based energy generation for far-flung customers. Unique joint venture and pioneer in the field, Boundary Power, has been widely recognised for its innovations and is ready to repeat its SAPS successes across Australia and the Asia-Pacific.

Aviation H2 today it announced it has appointed a team of engineers to fast-track its ambitions of building Australia’s first hydrogen-fuelled aeroplane. The company is, however, rather enigmatic, without a website and wholly owned by Liberty Energy Capital, which itself falls into rabbit hole of ownerships. The plan comes on the same day one of Australia’s biggest renewable hydrogen players, Fortescue Future Industries, announced it’s joined forced with Los Angeles-based Universal Hydrogen to enter the aviation space.

Following a funding announcement from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), a $3 million feasibility study led by Port of Newcastle and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group is set to determine whether Newcastle, the world’s largest coal exporting port, has the potential for a green hydrogen hub.