Tasmania will invest A$50 million ($33 million) to build a renewable hydrogen industry, as the island state plots a course to commercial exports of the clean fuel by 2030.
Australia’s smallest state seeks to benefit from its abundance of hydropower generation and the falling cost of large-scale production from renewables to make emissions-free hydrogen for export to Asia. Hydrogen projects are being mooted around Australia, with a 2018 government report estimating that the industry could be worth more than $1 billion to the economy annually by 2030.
“Hydrogen presents a significant economic opportunity as countries such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore and China look towards renewably produced hydrogen as a way to power their nations while reducing emissions,” the state government said in the statement.
So-called green hydrogen is produced from water via electrolysis in a process that is free from carbon emissions when powered by renewable energy. Currently, hydrogen is mainly made by splitting it off from molecules of natural gas in a process that also produces carbon dioxide.