Michelle Slater
The Latrobe Valley is being eyed off as one of four hydrogen hubs in the Federal Budget, with the Morrison Government pledging more than half-a-billion dollars towards new investments.
The 2021-22 Federal Budget will include $275 million to accelerate the development of four additional hydrogen hubs in regional Australia and implement a clean hydrogen certification scheme.
The federal government has identified the Latrobe Valley, Bell Bay, Gladstone, Darwin, the Hunter Valley, the Pilbara and Whyalla and Eyre Peninsula as prospective sites.
A further $263 million will be spent to support the development of carbon capture, use and storage projects and hubs. These regions would need to go through a competitive process, with potential sites demonstrating a large scale industrial energy demand, skilled workforce and existing infrastructure.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the world was changing rapidly and Australia needed to be competitive in a new energy economy.
“We cannot pretend the world is not changing. If we do, we run the risk of stranding jobs in this country, especially in regional areas,” he said.
“It is essential we position Australia to succeed by investing now in the technologies that will support our industries into the future, with lower emissions energy that can support Australian jobs.”
The government is actively pursuing opportunities to collaborate on low emissions technologies with Germany, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States.
It comes as the federal government had announced its $18 billion Technology Investment Roadmap to drive $70 billion in new investment in low emissions technologies by 2030.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor said the investment would help to reduce technical and commercial barriers to deploying these technologies.
“It will encourage new large-scale investment from the private sector, creating jobs and supporting Australia’s economic recovery, particularly in regional areas,” Mr Taylor said.
“Australia’s potential to supply our trading partners with low cost, clean energy and permanently and safely store emissions underground has our trading partners, including Japan, South Korea and Singapore excited.”
The Australian Energy Council said that although it may be some time before hydrogen was commercially viable, it could potentially remove emissions from intensive heavy industries.
“While CCS has not proved to be as useful in electricity as was once hoped, it still may assist other sectors that collectively emit much more, AEC chief executive Sarah McNamara said.
“CCS may also be useful in making hydrogen without emissions. While the scale of its potential use remains uncertain, it’s certainly worth spending some money to find out.”
