Australia’s Approach to Hydrogen – Domestic Use vs Exports
The May 2021: Issue 127 of the Oxford Energy Forum (OEF) covers the theme ‘The Role of Hydrogen in the Energy Transition’. The OEF is an on-line, quarterly journal published by the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES).
The Future Fuels Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) in Australia was invited by the OIES to present a paper along the lines of ‘Australia’s approach to hydrogen – domestic use vs exports’.
The hydrogen industry is enjoying considerable momentum in Australia. The invitation from a world-leading energy research institute to contribute to global discussion on this important theme presented an opportunity to give greater visibility to this momentum and pathways for development of the hydrogen industry in Australia.
The paper suggests that a development characterisation of ‘domestic use vs exports’, which hints at countervailing pressures or mutually exclusive outcomes, masks complementary themes at play in the development of Australia’s hydrogen industry.
The prize of long-term export potential has resulted in a hydrogen projects pipeline in Australia that includes a number of large-scale export oriented projects presently at various stages of development planning. While the prize is dangling, early steps supporting much wider deployment are being taken with domestic oriented projects across a range of end-use applications.
These projects, while of smaller scale and less glamorous than those proposed for export, will provide valuable information to investors, policy-makers and the community that can support future phases of industry development throughout the rest of the decade and beyond. The earlier development of these domestic projects complements and enhances the pathway to realising Australia’s considerable potential in hydrogen exports.
For the full paper and perusal of other papers in this May 2021 issue of the OEF, please refer to Oxford Energy Forum – The Role of Hydrogen in the Energy Transition: May 2021: Issue 127.
The principal author of this Features article (and coauthor of the OEF paper) is Peter Grubnic, HyResource Project Lead: peter.grubnic@futurefuelscrc.com.