South Australia renewable hydrogen hub wins Japanese backing

Plans to export renewable hydrogen from South Australia through a pilot project co-developed by Marubeni Corp have won funding from the Japanese government, in a bilateral bid to build an Indo-Pacific supply chain for the zero emissions fuel.

The project, which was showcased at the COP26 in Glasgow in an event co-hosted by government ministers from South Australia and Japan, will produce green hydrogen from South Australia’s abundance of large-scale wind and solar.

At this stage of the plans, Marubeni is said to be working with the South Australian government on project development, including site selection.

South Australia has the potential to be a poster child for renewable hydrogen production and export, being well on track to meet and beat its targets of 100% renewables by 2030 and 500% of current grid demand in renewable energy by 2050.

Just this weekend, the state produced nearly twice as much renewable energy than it could use at times on Sunday, forcing wind and solar plant operators to massively curtail their output.

As Giles Parkinson reported here, there is probably no better case for added storage, or to use the excess for technologies such as green hydrogen, but the latter is a few years away, at least, from a rollout of significant scale.

Still, state governments and various Australian billionaires are chipping away at the problem.

SA energy minister Dan Van Holst Pellekaan said on Monday that winning Japanese government backing for the pilot was the fruit of years spent building relationships with key governments and companies interested in renewable hydrogen production.

“This shows the success of the Marshall government’s Hydrogen Action Plan in attracting investment, working with critical trading partners such as Japan,” said Van Holst Pellekaan in a statement on Monday.

“It is an exciting opportunity for South Australia to showcase to the world that we ideal for low-cost, clean hydrogen production to help others to reach their carbon emissions reduction targets.”

Marubeni Corp has its hand in a number of renewable hydrogen projects taking shape in Australia, after revealing plans in 2018 to halve its ownership of coal-fired power plants by 2030, and then withdraw completely from the coal plant building business.

Among those projects is the H2Tas renewable hydrogen production facility planned for Tasmania by Woodside, for which Marubeni has helped complete feasibility studies for the export of green ammonia to Japan.

“The Marshall government is securing our future harnessing our abundant renewable energy to become a renewable energy exporter, cutting emissions here and abroad,” minister Van Holst Pellekaan said.

“We congratulate to the Japanese government and the Marubeni Corporation, along with its industry partners, on this exciting venture.”