green hydrogen

The Australian arm of UK-based global fund manager Octopus Group has announced it will partner with Indigenous communities on plans for renewable energy projects it says could attract investments of as much as $50 billion over the next decade.

Two of Australia’s most prominent energy players, Fortescue Future Industries and oil and gas giant Woodside Energy have been included on a shortlist of potential development partners for a proposed 600MW green hydrogen production and export facility planned for New Zealand’s South Island.

Australian oil and gas exploration and development company Elixir Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Mongolia Green Finance Corporate to support financing for the first phase of a proposed green hydrogen project planned for the South Gobi region of the East Asia nation.

Lavo’s hydrogen battery technology has found monetary support from both Australian and international investors in the last year, as well as public support which has continued this week with the announcement by the New South Wales government of $5 million in funding from the Regional Job Creation Fund to boost hydrogen manufacturing jobs in the Hunter Region.

Singapore’s trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund GIC has made a “strategic” investment in renewables developer InterContinental Energy, one of the major players behind mega solar and wind-powered green hydrogen projects planned for Western Australia’s Pilbara and southeast regions.

The Suiso Frontier cargo vessel docked at Victoria’s Port of Hastings on Friday to take on the world’s first shipment of liquid hydrogen. The ship’s arrival is a landmark for the Japanese-Australian Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain pilot project, which sees liquefied hydrogen generated from brown coal, and an engineering milestone in itself. But while the Australian government describes the product as “clean”, experts maintain that carbon capture and storage technology has proven only to be an expensive failure.

Queensland clean energy start-up Endua’s ambitious plan to manufacture modular hydrogen-powered energy generation and storage systems has been given a financial boost with the Federal Government providing the company with almost $1 million to help it commercialise the innovative technology.

Transport accounts for approximately 20% of the Victoria’s emissions while also being one of the more hard to decarbonise sectors. Due to its commitment to halve its emissions by 2030, the Victorian government has announced over $7 million in grands for a number of projects seeking to commercialise real world applications in the transport sector powered by renewable hydrogen.

Fortescue Future Industries has taken another step toward its global green hydrogen ambitions with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Germany polymer company Covestro for the equivalent of 100,000 tonnes of solar-sourced green hydrogen and its derivatives annually, starting as early as 2024.

While there are still many uncertainties as to the way in which hydrogen trade might evolve and change economic ties and political dynamics between countries, experts agree that green hydrogen can bring winds of change to the global energy arena. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency, significant geoeconomic and geopolitical shifts are just around the corner.