South Australia teams up with Aussie, Japanese companies for hydrogen

The government of South Australia has signed statements of cooperation with Australian and Japanese companies to accelerate the development of the hydrogen industry in the state, it said on October 11.

Following a series of meetings in Tokyo on October 10, Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Marubeni, and Australia’s Santos and H2U have signed individual statements of cooperation with the state government.

The statement of cooperation focuses on the development of a hydrogen export strategy. The parties will develop projects that accelerate the development of large-scale industrial decarbonisation programmes.

The statement of cooperation also focuses on near-term domestic markets including mobility through the establishment of an ecosystem enabling a national hydrogen network of supply and applications.

The current government-supported projects include Hydrogen Jobs Plan which includes the construction of a large-scale green hydrogen production facility and a hydrogen power station, and AGIG's Hydrogen Park South Australia (HyP SA), a A$14.5mn ($9.1mn) demonstration project comprising a 1.25 MW electrolyser at the Tonsley Innovation District in Adelaide's southern suburbs.

The South Australian government is also supporting H2U's development of the Eyre Peninsula Gateway project at Cultana, providing a facility integrating more than 75 MW in water electrolysis to produce renewable hydrogen and renewable ammonia.

Trafigura along with Nyrstar is developing plants to construct a commercial-scale green hydrogen manufacturing facility in Port Pirie.

The state government is supporting a hydrogen hub at Port Bonython to create a large-scale clean hydrogen production precinct for both export and domestic markets.