South Australia

Australian natural hydrogen explorer Gold Hydrogen says it has confirmed an “active natural hydrogen field” in South Australia with purities nearly matching those accidentally discovered 100 years ago. The results come from Australia’s first dedicated natural hydrogen exploration well.

Global gas and engineering giants ATCO and BOC Linde have been named preferred partners to deliver a $593 million (USD 374 million) hydrogen production, power plant and storage facility at Whyalla in South Australia.

Australia’s largest electricity transmission project EnergyConnect has taken another step towards completion with the arrival of two 120 MVA capacity synchronous condensers that will sit at the heart of the Buronga substation in western New South Wales.

South Australia-based Sparc Hydrogen will use federal government funding to fast track the development of next generation photocatalytic technology to produce commercially viable green hydrogen from water using concentrated solar.

Diesel trains have been retrofitted with batteries and are now running from Adelaide stations, in the latest of a spate of sustainable transport trials in the South Australian capital. This includes trials with fully electric trains and the beginning of trials with hydrogen-powered and pure electric buses.

The Queensland Parliament has passed new legislation that will see hydrogen pipelines regulated in the same way as fossil fuel gases, creating clearer regulatory pathways and safety assessments for hydrogen projects.

Registrations for the South Australia and Victorian Capacity Investment Scheme, Australia’s new zero-emissions storage underwriting program, have opened today.

With the regulatory scaffolding around natural hydrogen starting to be erected across the country, the Western Australian government has confirmed it will charge a royalty on hydrogen extracted from underground geological formations, otherwise known as natural or gold hydrogen.

Plans to develop a large-scale green hydrogen production and export facility at Port Bonython in South Australia have received a significant boost with the state and federal governments investing $100 million (USD 64.4 million) to develop infrastructure that will support the proposed $593 million project.

West Australian natural hydrogen startup H2EX will work with Adelaide-headquartered space exploration company Fleet Space Technologies to accelerate the discovery of naturally occurring hydrogen systems in South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula.