Under the Tasmanian Renewable Hydrogen Action Plan, the Tasmania Government has committed a $50 million package of renewable hydrogen support measures over 10 years through a competitive Expression of Interest (EOI) process, including a $20 million Tasmanian Renewable Hydrogen Fund, $20 million in concessional loans and $10 million worth of support services including competitive electricity supply arrangements and payroll tax relief. $16 million has been allocated in this year’s budget.
Earlier this year, the Tasmanian Renewable Hydrogen Industry Development Funding Program called for expressions of interest for feasibility studies for projects with a minimum renewable hydrogen production capability production capability of 5-10 MW (or the equivalent level of output for end-use projects), with production capabilities of more than 100 MW considered more favourably.
A 100MW renewable hydrogen plant may produce up to 14,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen per year as either pure hydrogen or embedded within derivatives such as liquid hydrogen, ammonia or methanol. This process would consume 400 megalitres of water and around 650GWh of electricity, or around 6% of the Tasmania’s extra renewable energy generation needed to reach the 200% Tasmanian Renewable Energy Target.
Most of the world’s hydrogen today is used for industrial and commercial purposes, and is mainly produced from natural gas. As further uses for hydrogen are being explored and trialed, much of today’s research is focused on developing new technology to reduce the cost of producing green hydrogen down to a comparable cost to hydrogen produced from fossil fuels (which is currently 3 to 6 times cheaper).
