“Massive role:” NSW to play match-maker to bring renewable hydrogen to industry

The NSW government wants to supercharge the creation of a new renewable hydrogen economy, launching a new collaboration platform that will work to matchmake renewable hydrogen producers with potential customers.

The new platform, launched on Monday, will help link emerging producers of hydrogen with industrial energy users looking to decarbonise their energy supplies, boosting demand for the zero emissions fuel, particularly amongst large industrial energy users.

“Green hydrogen will play a massive role in our future economic prosperity and decarbonising our economy,” New South Wales energy minister Matt Kean said in a statement.

“We know that the best way to make green hydrogen commercially viable in Australia and NSW is to get to scale as quickly as possible. We also know our hydrogen hubs have the potential to become clean manufacturing powerhouses and we need to move fast, but that challenge is too big for one business alone.”

“That is why we are bringing decision-makers and investors who want to deploy hydrogen into their businesses and industries together to help deliver hydrogen in a way that will drive scale, reduce costs, focus innovation and grow our workforce capabilities.” Kean added.

The NSW government will initially draw upon participants of its $750 million New Zero Industry and Innovation Program, which was launched by Kean at BlueScope manufacturing facilities in the Illawarra region in March.

The program aiming to cut the greenhouse emissions of New South Wales’ industrial manufacturers through investments in green hydrogen production, supporting industries to shift to low emissions manufacturing and funding new clean technology research and development.

Chair of the Port Kembla Hydrogen Hub, Nigel McKinnon, said the new collaboration platform will help assist the Illawarra Region’s industrial manufacturers identify new opportunities to support an emerging hydrogen industry.

“NSW’s hydrogen collaboration platform will help complement the ongoing work of the Port Kembla Hydrogen Hub by providing a space for key stakeholders to connect and collaborate as we work towards developing a burgeoning regional hydrogen ecosystem in the Illawarra,” McKinnon said.

The NSW government has previously set aside $70 million in funding to support the development of the hydrogen industry hubs in the Illawarra and Hunter regions.

These hubs will help link renewable hydrogen producers with key export infrastructure, as well as major industrial energy users, including many of the state’s steelmakers to potentially incorporate hydrogen into their operations.

“NSW’s hydrogen collaboration platform is a valuable tool to strengthen the NSW hydrogen ecosystem. It will complement the work of the NewH2 Cluster by supporting the interaction between hydrogen hubs and technology clusters, bringing together key industry players, reducing overlap, and accelerating the growth of new hydrogen focused technologies,” NewH2 Hunter Hydrogen Technology Cluster manager, Clare Sykes, said.