Australia pledges more funding for hydrogen, CCS

The Australian government has pledged further funding for hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS) activities, with A$275.5mn ($212mn) to be allocated to develop more hydrogen hubs in regional Australia. The funding will come from the federal budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year to 30 June.

Canberra has identified seven highly prospective locations to develop hydrogen hubs. These are Bell Bay in Tasmania; the Pilbara region in Western Australia (WA); Gladstone in Queensland; Victoria's La Trobe valley; Whyalla in South Australia; Hunter Valley in New South Wales (NSW); and Darwin in the Northern Territory. All of these are already energy-, including thermal coal and gas, or mineral-producing regions and close to port facilities. This implies that the hydrogen is likely to be produced from fossil fuel sources as opposed to renewable sources.

The Australian government said it has now committed around A$850mn in funding for hydrogen. A further A$263.7mn has been allocated for CCS, including potential projects in Moomba in South Australia, Gladstone; the Darling basin region in NSW; the North West Shelf (NSW) and Bonaparte basin, both offshore WA; as well as Darwin and southwestern WA. The new funding is in addition to the A$50mn pledged for CCS projects last year.

The announcements come ahead of the US-hosted virtual climate summit on 22-23 April.

Australia is the world's largest LNG exporter and second-largest thermal coal exporter. Its largest buyers of coal and LNG, China, Japan and South Korea, have all pledged to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, and 2060 for China.

By Kevin Morrison