Hubs

Hydrogen Hubs

The concept of hydrogen hubs (or hydrogen valleys, clusters or ecosystems) is included in many global hydrogen strategies and roadmaps, including Australian releases, as an important mechanism to accelerate large-scale hydrogen industry development. Hydrogen hubs support cost-effective infrastructure development, promote efficiencies through economies of scale, foster innovation, and promote synergies from sector coupling.

Criteria that define a hydrogen hub embody a combination of factors, including:

• Geographically defined scope – a hydrogen ecosystem that covers a specific geography.
• Substantial infrastructure facilities – supportive of sizeable export/domestic hydrogen industry development (either in combination or separately as either export or domestic focussed) or that proposals for such infrastructure are included in the energy plans of key jurisdictions.
• Large in scale – an existing substantial industrial base covering a range of industries with decarbonisation plans or with clean energy projects proposed for establishment in such identified areas.
• Broad value chain coverage – covering multiple steps in the hydrogen value chain.
• Supply of more than one end use – supplying more than one sector or application.

In the Australian context, hydrogen hubs tend to be associated with substantial resource endowment features (solar, wind, hydro, and prospective options for carbon dioxide storage in the case of hydrogen production through fossil fuel conversion).

In defining hydrogen hubs for HyResource purposes, cognisance is also taken of Federal, State and Territory hydrogen strategies and roadmaps, funding programs and project developments.

Caveats and disclaimers on the use of information displayed in HyResource can be found on the About page.

Major Australian hydrogen hub locations are indicated in the map below (circle placements are representative). The states of New South Wales and Victoria, which account for around 55% of Australia’s population and gross domestic product, in their hydrogen plans also identify other regional areas as prospective hydrogen demand centres and these are termed as Strategic Hydrogen Locations for representational purposes.

While the main purpose of this map is to present a simple graphical representation of major hub locations, the visualisation of the full library of HyResouce – active projects can be found in the HyResource Projects Map.