Hunter Hub

Overview

The New South Wales Hydrogen Strategy identifies the Hunter region of the State as a major hydrogen hub development opportunity.

The Hunter region as a whole extends approximately 100-300 kilometres north of Sydney. There are several major centres of economic activity in the Hunter region (indicating potentially large hydrogen end use applications) including large-scale mining, agriculture, manufacturing (e.g., ammonia and ammonium nitrate production), freight and logistics, and tourism operations.

Initial hydrogen development opportunities are centred around Newcastle and the surrounding area. The Port of Newcastle is one of Australia’s largest deep-sea access ports, is a major freight and logistics centre, and has access to existing high voltage transmission infrastructure.

The Hunter region as a whole has access to existing high voltage transmission infrastructure and the New South Wales Government is in the process of planning/developing the proposed Hunter-Central Coast Renewable Energy Zone. The proposed Regional Energy Zone would contain infrastructure supporting development of renewable energy projects.

In January 2024, the Committee for the Hunter released The Hunter Hydrogen Infrastructure Masterplan. Amongst other things, the document identifies the priorities that will speed up and scale the development of the Hunter hydrogen hub.

Funding

In July 2023, in a joint release, the Australian and New South Wales Governments announced that a signed agreement had been reached for the Australian Government to invest AUD$70 million to develop a hydrogen hub in Newcastle, noting that Origin Energy in collaboration with Orica is progressing the development of the Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub. The release notes that funding will support building of the infrastructure needed to enable up to 4,400 tonnes per annum of renewables-based hydrogen production.

The New South Wales Government, through its hydrogen hubs initiative, has made AUD$150 million in grant funding available to support commercial-scale green hydrogen projects in the State. As part of this initiative, in September 2023, the New South Wales Government announced it had awarded AUD$45 million to Origin Energy to develop the Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub project.

(Note: In October 2024, Origin announced its intention to exit the Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub project. Orica has advised that it remains committed to exploring opportunities in the renewables hydrogen sector and remains open to discussions with interested parties who share its vision for a sustainable energy future.)

As regards hydrogen-hubs eligible programs, in the October 2022 2022-23 federal budget, the Australian Government included AUD$100 million to support the Port of Newcastle and the Hunter region of New South Wales to become hydrogen-ready.

Projects

The geographic location of New South Wales projects listed in HyResource can be viewed on the HyResource projects map.

 

Reviewed: June 2025