Can the Middle East open the door to affordable clean hydrogen?

Image: Ghadir Shaar

A report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has suggested affordable green hydrogen could already be obtainable, based on the record-breaking low prices for solar negotiated in the Middle East.

Solar electricity tariffs of $0.0157, $0.0135 and $0.0104 per kilowatt-hour agreed in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, respectively, in the last 18 months, would enable renewables-powered hydrogen to be produced for as little as $1.62 per kilogram, according to IRENA's Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2020 report.

The Abu Dhabi-based international body made its calculations – all of which are in U.S. dollars – based on the $0.0104 solar power tariff agreed in Saudi Arabia in April, with green hydrogen generation being modeled at the Dumat al Jandal site in the kingdom which boasts strong solar and wind power resources. With the site already hosting a wind farm, IRENA modeled a hydrogen plant which would also harness solar and be connected to the grid. The report suggested lack of a grid connection would raise the renewable hydrogen cost to $1.74/kg, which still compares favorably to the current $1.45-2.40/kg price of hydrogen production powered by natural gas and equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS) tech.

Further extrapolating the costs, the study estimated a fall in hydrogen electrolyzer costs, from $750 per kilowatt of capacity to $350, would enable renewable hydrogen production for $1.16/kg. Raising electrolyzer efficiency to 72.5% and extending stack lifetime from 15 to 17.5 on top of that, IRENA said, could take green hydrogen below the prized $1/kg point.

With this year's renewables price report explaining how the three tariffs secured in the Middle East since January 2020 can be regarded as viable without any hidden caveats or subsidy, the authors of the study stated: “low-cost renewable hydrogen may already be in reach.”

The document fleshed out how up to 800 GW of coal-fired power generation capacity worldwide could already be replaced by newly-built renewable energy facilities as solar and wind prices have dipped under the cost of running legacy fossil fuel plants in many markets. That estimate included a $5/MWh cost of integrating renewables into the electric grid and IRENA said, with around 40% of that overpriced capacity – and 37% of actual generation – based in Bulgaria, Germany, India and the United States, decommissioning could save around $32 billion per year in energy costs. Making the switch would also eliminate three gigatons of carbon emissions – 20% of what IRENA estimates is needed to keep global heating to a maximum 1.5 degrees Celsius this century.

The data

The latest edition of the report is based on data from around 20,000 renewables generation facilities worldwide which account for 1.9 TW of generation capacity, and on clean energy auction prices and power purchase agreements which add up to 582 GW of capacity. All the figures in the study exclude any form of subsidy and the authors point out, adding CCS to the world's overpriced coal plants would merely drive up their costs further.

IRENA has estimated all of Bulgaria and Germany‘s coal plants will this year cost electricity bill payers more than new renewables facilities would, based on a European carbon emissions price of €50 per ton. Even without an emissions trading scheme in the U.S. and India, the picture is similar, with 77-91% of American coal plants and 87-91% of Indian facilities also overpriced.

That conclusion is based on an estimated levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for solar power in India this year of $0.033/kWh, down from $0.038 last year; and of $0.031 in the States this year, although the report's authors note the solar module price has picked up between 1% and 9% in the first quarter of this year, thanks to shortages of raw materials such as polysilicon.

With the global LCOE of solar having fallen 7% from 2019 to last year, from $0.061 to $0.057/kWh, India led the world for low-price PV last year, with an average LCOE of $0.038/kWh for utility scale generation, ahead of China, with $0.044, and Spain, with $0.046. The authors noted Turkey also rapidly reduced average solar tariffs, to $0.052 last year, and Australia posted an average $0.057.

That translated into average solar project development costs of $596 per kilowatt installed in India, the world's lowest figure and down 8% from Indian costs in 2019. Solar projects in Vietnam came in to $949/kW and were only $796/kW in Spain last year, the report added. At the other end of the scale, projects in Russia cost $1,889/kW and, in Japan, $1,832, with those two countries exceptional among the 19 markets studied as the cost differences between areas from Canada (at $1,275/kW) down to India, were more evenly distributed.

Auction results posted last year, for projects expected to be commissioned this year and next, prompted IRENA to estimate the global average solar power price will fall to $0.039/kWh this year before rising slightly to $0.04 next year, which would still be a 30% fall on this year's figure and 27% less than the LCOE to be expected from new-build coal plants. With the predictions based on 18.8 GW of renewables capacity expected this year and 26.7 GW due in 2022, the study estimated 74% of the clean energy facilities expected this year and next will be cheaper than new fossil fuel generation sites.

Cheaper

Renewables are already making real headway, of course, with IRENA calculating 45.5 GW of the solar added last year was among the 62% of the 162 GW of clean energy facilities which were installed more cheaply than new-build coal plants.

Digging into the solar statistics, the report said mainstream solar panel costs in December ranged from $0.19 to $0.40 per Watt, for an average price of $0.27, with thin-film products averaging $0.28/W.

Operations and maintenance costs came in at an average of $17.80/kW last year in OECD countries and $9 elsewhere, in a year which also saw non-panel, balance-of-system equipment costs account for 65% of total project expense.

For residential solar arrays, average system prices in the 19 markets studied by IRENA ranged from $658/kW in India to $4,236 in California, for LCOE figures from $0.055/kWh in India to $0.236 in the U.K. For commercial systems, India was again the cheapest place to invest last year, at an average $651/kW, but a business in California would have to find $2,974/kW. Those system costs translated into LCOE numbers ranging between $0.055 in India and $0.19 in Massachusetts.

This article originally appeared on pv-magazine-usa.com, and has been republished with permission by pv magazine (www.pv-magazine.com and www.pv-magazine-usa.com).

A rendering of the project to produce green hydrogen that Gransolar is planning for the Port of Almería.

Image: Gransolar

A company spokesperson told pv magazine that the plant will produce hydrogen from seawater and will be powered by a 30 MW solar plant and a 20 MWh storage system with an autonomy of 4 hours.

The facility will be based on double-reverse osmosis treatment with energy recovery followed by electrolysis of deionized water through proton exchange membrane (PEM). Furthermore, secondary electrolysis of concentrated brine will be implemented by cell membrane electrolysis.

The main electrolyzer at the facility will have an installed capacity of 20 MW and an estimated production of 1,000 tons per year. The produced fuel will be then stored in trucks for pressurized gas at 400 bar pressure.

Hydrogen will be used as fuel for public transport at the port and urban cleaning vehicles in the city of Almería. It will also be utilized to feed the port's unloading machinery, the national and international transport of goods, and part of the energy demand of local manufacturing industries.

The project has a required investment of €80.5 million euros and is scheduled to be built by the end of 2024. Gransolar confirms that it has the interest and commitment of the Almería City Council, as well as multiple companies from different professional sectors, without providing further details.

Almería will not be the only Andalusian port with plans to produce hydrogen. The Port of Malaga is also expected to host green hydrogen production through a project that also contemplates the use of artificial intelligence.

This article originally appeared on pv-magazine-usa.com, and has been republished with permission by pv magazine (www.pv-magazine.com and www.pv-magazine-usa.com)

A hydrogen bus developed by Poland-based Solaris Bus & Coach.

Image: Solaris Bus & Coach

U.S. trading company Tramo, Vienna-based Austria Energy Group and Austrian renewable energy developer Oekowind have signed a memorandum of understanding for the production of a hydrogen/green ammonia plant to be developed in Chile with an estimated annual production capacity of 1 million tons of green ammonia. This project, in Chile, will be one of the first to commercialize green ammonia. It will be based on a 2 GW wind farm.

A team of researchers at the Research Center for Energy Networks and Energy Storage (FENES) of the East Bavarian Technical University (OTH) Regensburg, led by Professor Michael Sterner, is developing a hydrogen atlas for Germany. The interactive, continuously updated database will show which power-to-X plants are installed, indicating also related regional value chains. The project will be built gradually. The final version should be available in 2023. “The hydrogen atlas offers users the opportunity to assess potential, consumption, costs and emission reductions on a regional level,” Sterner explains. “This provides them with a comprehensive tool that facilitates entry into concrete technical planning.”

Canadian integrated energy company Suncor and Canadian holding company ATCO are looking into a potential “world scale clean hydrogen project” in Alberta. The decision follows support messages from the government of Canada and the government of Alberta, both in favor of emission-reduction projects. “Approximately 20% of the produced clean hydrogen could be used in the Alberta natural gas grid to further reduce emissions,” read a note released on Tuesday, adding that the majority would be used in refining processes and co-generation of steam and electricity at the Suncor Edmonton Refinery. The project should produce more than 300,000 tonnes per year of clean hydrogen.

Japanese petroleum company Eneos and Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer Toyota Motor are exploring hydrogen applications at Woven City, a prototype city in Susono City, Shizuoka prefecture. Eneos should establish a hydrogen refueling station and produce green hydrogen. The two companies are also interested in conducting joint advanced research on hydrogen supply. “At Woven City, they intend to promote carbon neutrality in everyday mobility, people's lives, and within the infrastructure of the city itself,” read a statement released on Monday.

Japanese transport company Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and Mitsui E&S Machinery are carrying out a joint study to introduce hydrogen fuel port cargo handling machinery. As part of the agreement, MOL signed a “contract for a new, near-zero emission, rubber-tired gantry container yard crane, and decided to introduce it at the MOL-operated Kobe International Container Terminal.”

Professor Kondo-Francois Aguey-Zinsou, who leads the Hydrogen Energy Research Centre (HERC) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), said that Australia is at the cutting edge of the hydrogen revolution and will increasingly collaborate with other countries. The comment came at the launch of a new hydrogen advisory firm called H2Potential, which will act as an incubator and an accelerator of hydrogen businesses. In collaboration with LAVO, Aguey-Zinsou helped produce the world’s first residential/commercial hydrogen battery, which stores 40 kWh of energy. That’s almost three times the capacity of a Tesla Powerwall 2, which offers 13.5 kWh.

An international alliance of 45 companies, knowledge institutes and port authorities, headed by the Port of Rotterdam Authority, has been awarded nearly €25 million in EU funding, wrote the Port of Rotterdam on Tuesday. “The consortium will be using this grant to execute ten pilot projects and demonstration projects that focus on sustainable and smart logistics in port operations,” read the note, adding that many details are not yet clear. Anyhow, the Port of Rotterdam explicitly mentioned green hydrogen among the potential renewable fuels and energy carriers.

Germany confirmed its interest in funding hydrogen, with both Länder and the federal state looking into projects that could allow the country to become a “global technology supplier.” An example is the hydrogen hub planned in Huntorf by Oldenburg-based energy, telecommunications and information technology company EWE and Dusseldorf-headquartered energy company Uniper. “Green hydrogen is an indispensable building block for the energy transition. That's why we are funding five innovative research projects across Lower Saxony with a total of €6 million. Here in Huntorf, the DLR Institute for Networked Energy Systems and Clausthal University of Technology are now using the compressed air storage power plant to investigate the potential of using green hydrogen in thermal processes,” Lower Saxony's minister for science and culture, Björn Thümler, commented in a note released on Monday.

Poland-based Solaris Bus & Coach has sold 13 hydrogen vehicles to Frankfurt. The buses are to be deployed on target routes in 2022. “The technology used in the Urbino hydrogen [bus] makes for absolutely environmentally friendly transport, thanks to the use of energy supplied by a fuel cell (of 70 kW),” read a note released last week. Earlier this year, the company signed deals for hydrogen buses with companies based in Germany, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands.

This article originally appeared on pv-magazine-usa.com, and has been republished with permission by pv magazine (www.pv-magazine.com and www.pv-magazine-usa.com).

First Solar

First Solar and Nel Hydrogen Electrolyser, a division of Nel ASA, a supplier of hydrogen technology, said they will develop integrated photovoltaic/hydrogen power plants.

First Solar and Nel will initially collaborate to develop an integrated power plant control and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. The development of this network architecture is critical to enable optimisation of PV-electrolyser hybrid projects, resulting in low total cost of hydrogen and electricity. After that, the two will explore  ways of optimising and integrating technology throughout the solar and hydrogen production plant.

In statements, both companies stressed their desire to deliver the lowest total cost of solar to hydrogen possible. Both also noted that First Solar’s low-carbon production of its cadmium-telluride modules was significant for keeping emissions low.

Because the partnership is so recent in nature, no project timelines have been released as of yet.

This article originally appeared on pv-magazine-usa.com, and has been republished with permission by pv magazine (www.pv-magazine.com and www.pv-magazine-usa.com).

Image: Swinburne University

Researchers from Swinburne University’s Centre for Translational Atomaterials and Shaanxi Normal University have developed a novel catalyst that can produce high-performance solar-triggered hydrogen from seawater. If there is one thing that we all know about seawater, it’s that there is a lot of it, so it's no surprise that this  scientific discovery has great potential.

In order to utilize this new catalyst, the researchers had to develop a prototype device, the Ocean-H2-Rig. It can float on the ocean's surface to produce green hydrogen from seawater.

One of the easiest and greenest ways to produce hydrogen is through photocatalytic water splitting, which uses solar energy to split water into its composite atoms, securing the hydrogen and harmlessly emitting the oxygen. The novelty of the single-atom platinum catalyst the researchers have developed is that the photo-generated electrons and holes triggered by solar radiation do not try to recombine, which greatly improves hydrogen production efficiency.

The proposed algorithm was validated on a hybrid system for application in both off-grid and on-grid scenarios.

Image: Frerk Meyer/Flickr

Researchers from Saudi Arabia's Qassim University and the Minia University, and the Aswan University in Egypt, have developed a new model to integrate PV, wind, and hydrogen generation in a hybrid system for application in both off-grid and on-grid scenarios.

The model is based on a metaheuristic algorithm called Improved Artificial Ecosystem Optimization (IAEO), which the scientists claim is an improved version of the conventional Artificial Ecosystem Optimization (AEO) algorithm. The latter is a nature-inspired algorithm known for mimicking three typical behaviors of living organisms, such as production, consumption, and decomposition.

The producers are any kind of green plant and consumers are animals that cannot make their food and, therefore, obtain it from a producer or other consumers. Decomposers are agents that feed on both producers, in the form of dead plants, and consumers, in the form of waste from living organisms. In an AEO algorithm, there is only one decomposer and one producer, and the other individuals are considered consumers.

The AEO works according to these three phases and is commonly used to optimize the flow of energy in an ecosystem on the earth. “The ecosystem can be expressed as a group of living organisms [which] live in a certain space, and the ecosystem describes the relations between them,” the researchers said, adding that IAEO is mainly intended at improving the consumption phase.

The proposed energy system consists of PV and wind power generation, a water electrolyzer, a tank of hydrogen gas, a fuel cell, and an inverter that brings the generated electricity to final consumers. “The hybrid system is suggested to be located in [the] Ataka region, [in the] Suez gulf (latitude 30.0, longitude 32.5), Egypt, and the whole lifetime of the suggested case study is 25 years,” the scientists specified.

In this configuration, which the academics have assessed for both off-grid and grid-connected projects, wind and solar plants are used to power the electrolyzer that produces hydrogen, which is then stored in the tank and used to produce electricity through the fuel cell. The inverter receives electricity from the fuel cell and also surplus power from the wind and solar facilities. “When the level of hydrogen in the tank becomes below the lowest allowable level, the shortage in the electrical energy required to store the hydrogen gas in the tank is dispatched from the national grid,” they further explained.

Both the IAEO and conventional AEO algorithms were applied for generating the optimal design for the system. “In the case of the isolated configuration, when the electrical power produced from PV and wind resources is higher than the load needs plus the rated power of the electrolyzer, a dummy load is used for generation-demand balance,” the Saudi-Egyptian group stated.

The IAEO algorithm was validated in six different configurations of the proposed hybrid system and, according to the research team, has provided better results not only compared to the AEO, but also to other kinds of algorithms. “The proposed IAEO algorithm provides fast convergence characteristics, the best minimum values of the objective function, and minimum cost of energy,” it concluded. “Based on the optimal configuration of the hybrid systems, it is found that the fuel cell system has the highest contribution to the net present cost.”

This article originally appeared on pv-magazine-usa.com, and has been republished with permission by pv magazine (www.pv-magazine.com and www.pv-magazine-usa.com).

The model was presented in the paper An improved artificial ecosystem optimization algorithm for optimal configuration of a hybrid PV/WT/FC energy system, published in the Alexandria Engineering Journal.

Early this year Adani announced his company’s goal to become the world’s largest solar power company by 2025 and the largest renewable power company by 2030.

Image: Life tech/Flickr

Covid-19 presents an opportunity to pause, rethink, and design a new and faster transition to a cleaner energy future, said Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani recently in his LinkedIn post.

“The [clean energy] transition could lead to investment opportunities of US$ 19 trillion in solar, wind, battery storage, green Hydrogen, carbon management and energy efficiency by 2050, making it one of the largest global industries”—Adani quoted a recent forecast by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

“Employment in the clean energy sector, currently at 12 million in 2020, could quadruple by 2050, while jobs in energy efficiency and system flexibility could grow by another 40 million.”

Adani believes India, in particular, is well-positioned to benefit from the transition as it is naturally endowed with very high levels of solar resources, and the long coastline makes an attractive proposition for wind power.

Falling solar prices in favour

With technology driving prices down, renewables would supplement fossil fuels in the short term and emerge as the favoured option in the long term.

Adani quoted an MIT research paper to share that the price of solar modules has dropped 99% over the past 40 years. Going by the trend, he expects prices to drop by an additional 99% over the next 40 years – probably reducing the marginal cost of electricity to zero.

“Such a reduction, in turn, will mean the coexistence of two business models – one based on fossil fuels and the other driven by renewables – both supplementing each other in the near future but the pendulum swinging decidedly in favour of renewables in the long-term,” he wrote.

Adani said many of the [power] system operators in Europe, faced with falling [electricity] demand, are learning to manage grids at a remarkably high level of renewables in the energy mix, often up to 70%.

“While the generation balance may swing back as [electricity] demand increases, the crisis has provided insights to operators on keeping the grid stable with high levels of renewable penetration. Post Covid-19, this may be the new norm,” he said.

Hydrogen storage, a potential game changer

With increasing investor confidence in solar and wind, their integration with various storage technologies will further accelerate the energy transition, said Adani, highlighting hydrogen as the predominant storage technology on the horizon.

“With the prospect of the future marginal cost of renewable energy dropping precipitously, green Hydrogen produced by the splitting water could be the game-changer.

“This Hydrogen could use much of the existing gas pipeline network for distribution, be blended with natural gas and be a green feedstock for the chemical industry. Add to this the fact that the energy density of a kilogram of Hydrogen is almost three times that of gasoline, and you have a momentum that would be near impossible to stop as Hydrogen fuel cell vehicle prices come down,” he said.

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This article originally appeared on pv-magazine-india.com, and has been republished with permission by pv magazine (www.pv-magazine.com and www.pv-magazine-india.com.)

From pv magazine Australia

The new Renewable Hydrogen Market Report, produced by ANT Energy Solutions and backed by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), features a number of key findings in the race to develop an Australian renewable hydrogen economy. The main conclusion is that on-site solar is the only way to go.

The report’s authors ran two models for renewable hydrogen produced by electrolysis, The first is a high OPEX, low CAPEX model (grid-connected, high capacity-factor), while the second is a high CAPEX, low OPEX model (behind-the-meter, low capacity-factor). The analysis indicated “that despite the much lower utilization rate, behind-the-meter solar renewable hydrogen generation can produce hydrogen at approximately half the cost per kilogram to a grid-connected system” with an electricity cost of AU$0.11 (US$0.07) per kilowatt-hour.

What this means is that the most cost-effective way of producing renewable hydrogen is by powering an electrolyzer with on-site solar. Indeed, the report suggests that hydrogen can be produced via on-site solar at a cost of $3.19 per kilogram of hydrogen versus $6.08 if produced from the grid.

Of course, considering that the costs of solar continue to decrease as efficiency rises, the cost of behind-the-meter solar hydrogen will only continue to drop, possibly below the AU$2 mark.

“Based on this alone, Australia has great potential to drive forward an increase in renewable energy and renewable hydrogen production,” the authors of the report said. “The impetus from ARENA is continuing to drive the cost of solar down with a continued reduction in the cost of large scale solar expected over the next five to 10 years.”

The call then, is for states and the federal government to support large-scale solar electrolysis as the cleanest and most obvious way to drive down the capital costs of a hydrogen economy.

Economic ecosystem

On-site solar is the most cost-effective way to build a domestic and export hydrogen industry, but it also might be the only way. “Commercialization of hydrogen as an end product requires the development of an entire economic ecosystem,” according to the report. “As with all ecosystems, they cannot function until there is critical mass in the system, so the faster scale can be developed, the more chance there is for the ecosystem to form and advantage to be generated.”

If Australia doesn’t act on its competitive advantage sooner rather than later, other countries might develop their hydrogen economies and start exporting first. The report points to Australia’s solar panel industry as an example of “where Australia failed to develop this ecosystem and competitive advantage has been lost to China and the United States, where scale of development has occurred in technology research, equipment design and fabrication.”

Businesses have already noticed the obvious competitive advantage. Toyota is installing a solar-electrolyzer at its site in Melbourne. Indeed, the company recently celebrated Earth Day by unveiling the first completed stage of its green hydrogen hub, with the help of ARENA funding.

Export potential

The CSIRO National Hydrogen Roadmap expects demand for hydrogen imports by Asian nations to reach 3.8 million tons by 2030. At the same time, ACIL Allen Opportunities for Hydrogen Exports model suggests that 10% to 20% of Japanese and South Korean hydrogen demand could be met by Australian exports. In other words, hydrogen means big business.

However, before we can talk about how much hydrogen countries such as Japan and Korea might want from us – let alone how we’ll manage to get the hydrogen up there – we must first decide how we’re going to produce said hydrogen.

In November, the COAG Energy Council adopted the National Hydrogen Strategy, our pathway to a domestic and export hydrogen economy. The strategy, however, remains “technology-neutral,” which is to say it is not solely to produce green hydrogen, but to keep Australia’s options open to fossil-fuels as well — playing the field, as it were. Although, as the ANT report shows, fossil-fuel-produced hydrogen is rather senseless compared to renewably produced hydrogen. Energy Minister Angus Taylor may think he is playing the field, but these are Flanders Fields, not Elysian ones, which is to say that Taylor is pursuing a senseless policy for the comforting sake of outdated norms.

Future forecasts

The ACIL Allen Opportunities for Hydrogen Exports model projected a mid-case forecast of 500,000 tons of hydrogen per annum by 2030. To put that in perspective, if we continue only with what we have already and what we have under construction, by 2025 we will have less than 3,000 tons per annum by 2025.

This is to say, if we don’t scale up renewable hydrogen production capacity by 160 times by 2025, we’ll be just 497,000 tons short of the ACIL Allen mid-case.

For an increase of that scale, Australia needs to put multiple industry-scale (100 MW-plus) renewable hydrogen projects in place over the next few years or the cost of production will remain too high and the hydrogen opportunity will be tentative, if not lost.

The renewable hydrogen opportunity cannot afford to be lost, as the scope of its Promethean potential is unfathomable, but there is much that can be understood already. If renewable hydrogen breaks the $2 per kilogram barrier, for example, it could immediately replace the domestic market for natural gas feedstock and provide a low-cast pathway to a green ammonia export industry, let alone Australia’s grander export ambitions. But, of course, “industry-scale renewable hydrogen development will require government and industry support to enable the adoption and the continued reduction in the cost per kilogram of renewable hydrogen … At levels below A$1.95 between 2025 and 2030, Australia will be able to transition a domestic market and be competitive in the forecast export markets.”

Currently, it is estimated that only 2% to 4% of the world’s hydrogen is produced via electrolysis.

 

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This article originally appeared on pv-magazine-usa.com, and has been republished with permission by pv magazine (www.pv-magazine.com and www.pv-magazine-usa.com).

 

At the Friday meeting in Perth, the COAG Energy Council agreed to the National Hydrogen Strategy, which is expected to pave the way for a hydrogen economy that would enhance Australia’s energy security, create jobs and build an export industry valued in billions. The federal government used the meeting to announce $370 million would be directed to a new fund aimed at developing Australia’s hydrogen industry.

The money to bankroll green hydrogen projects will come from existing allocations to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), with the former tipping in $300 million and the latter $70 million. According to Energy Minister Angus Taylor, the funding will help Australia to realise its potential as a leading hydrogen supplier to key export markets, particularly in Asia.

Despite positive aspects, the National Hydrogen Strategy remains “technology-neutral”, with both hydrogen produced using renewable energy and the one via fossil fuels with “substantial” carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the game. Throughout the consultation process, Australia’s Chief Scientist Alan Finkel continued to push Australia toward hydrogen produced by solar and wind, but also remained attached to the fossil fuel-CSS idea. The stance was reflected in the Strategy itself.

Notwithstanding the efforts by ACT Energy Minister Shane Rattenbury on Friday to change the strategy so it only supported green hydrogen, federal resources minister Matt Canavan said after the meeting the government would be encouraging all forms of hydrogen creation, including production using brown coal.

“A decade ago the fossil fuel industry promoted clean coal using CCS and now it is promoting hydrogen using the same unsuccessful technology. CCS projects have repeatedly failed to live up to promises, both domestically and globally, and missed their targets by a very large margin time and time again,” Merzanin said. “The only way to make hydrogen truly sustainable is to produce it using water and powered by renewable energy sources. Australia has time to establish and lead a global renewable hydrogen industry and should focus research and development efforts in that area exclusively.”

This article originally appeared on pv-magazine-australia.com and has been republished with permission by pv magazine (www.pv-magazine.com and www.pv-magazine-australia.com