Tasmania green hydrogen hopeful signs with possible first customer

Tasmanian green hydrogen play Countrywide Hydrogen may have signed up an early customer in the trucking industry keen to tap into the demand for net-zero transport.

The hydrogen hopeful signed a joint cooperation agreement with heavy haulage company 7R Logistics, which it says could wipe out 3000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year by converting all 12 of its trucks to fuel cells.

Net-zero transport is becoming a big competitive advantage in the heavy haulage industry, says 7R Logistics managing director Tim Jensen.

“With so many Australian companies announcing their emissions reductions targets, there is a strong appetite among them to secure freight services that offer a zero-emissions alternative,” he said in a statement. 

In 2022, federal government data shows transport generated 19 per cent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Getting the price right

But the proof will be in the price.

Countrywide Hydrogen CEO Geoffrey Drrucker previously told RenewEconomy the company is aiming for a hydrogen cost-of-production of under $8/kg, using a modular system of electrolysers that can produce about 4.5 tonnes of the gas per day from a 10MW plant.

Today, diesel in Hobart cost $1.66/litre, or about the same price as a kilogram of green hydrogen.

The Coalition was aiming for a green hydrogen price of $2/kg and federal Labor hasn’t updated that target. The previous New South Wales (NSW) Liberal government pushed $64 million in grants into two large electrolysers as part of a plan to get the price down to $2.80/kg by 2030. 

The Tasmanian government hasn’t been ignoring the new industry: it launched the $20 million Tasmanian Renewable Hydrogen Fund in 2020, and is spending $70 million to turn the Bell Bay industrial area in northern Tasmania into a hydrogen hub.

“Our green hydrogen vision, set out in our Tasmanian Renewable Hydrogen Action Plan, is for Tasmania to be a global leader in large scale green hydrogen production by 2030,’’ said Guy Barnett today, Tasmania minister for energy and renewables.

“We are working with hydrogen proponents, hydrogen support partners and our government businesses to help make this a reality.

“We have also been partnering with the Australian Government, and industry, to develop Bell Bay as a national green hydrogen hub.”

Still a year off

The trucking company has time to convert its fleet: Countrywide Hydrogen’s projects are all still in planning stages with financial close expected by the end of the year and production in 2024. 

The company says the availability of fuel cell trucks in Tasmania will coincide with first production, which will be late 2024 or early 2025, “depending on delivery of our electrolysers”.

The Tasmanian projects are a 10MW electrolyser plant in Bell Bay and a 5MW version in Brighton in Tasmania, with hydrogen heading to three vehicle refuelling stations in Hobart, Launceston and Burnie as well as potentially also into the gas network.

The company also has plans for two 10MW Victorian locations in Melbourne and Portland.

Countrywide Hydrogen appears to be getting around the chicken-and-egg problem, where project proponents can’t get plans off the ground because they have no customers, and customers don’t want to invest because there are no functioning projects to point to.

Super fund HESTA sank $100 million into the company in November, and the company has a tentative partnership deal with Launceston airport for a potential production site, which is where the company expects to produce the hydrogen for the 7R deal.

A deal struck with solar power company Wirsol to provide behind-the-meter electricity for hydrogen production last year is no longer going ahead.