ARENA commits $70m to hydrogen

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ARENA announced its next funding round on the back of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Energy Council’s release of the National Hydrogen Strategy, which outlines a path to develop the energy source into a major export industry in Australia by 2030.

For this round of funding, ARENA plans to target projects involving commercial scale deployments of electrolysers, particularly more than 10 MW in size, in order to drive commercialisation of hydrogen and bring down production costs.

ARENA CEO Darren Miller said at present large-scale systems were still expensive.

“There is a need to develop local skills, supply chains and delivery capabilities of large-scale renewable hydrogen projects,” said Mr Miller.

“ARENA’s support can help to establish this new industry as well as progressing research and development to unlock greater cost reductions and efficiency improvements.

“But if we want to build a hydrogen industry, we need to get cracking – which is why ARENA is looking at a competitive funding round that will drive technological innovations and help bridge the commerciality gap.”

ARENA has already committed millions to range of hydrogen endeavours around the country, including Jemena’s green gas project, Hazer Group’s hydrogen and graphite project and BOC’s production and refuelling development on Bulwer Island.

Formal applications for funding are expected to open in March 2020.

For more information visit the ARENA website.

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