Policy and Regulation

Government policies

National Hydrogen Strategy

On 22 November 2019, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Energy Council endorsed a National Hydrogen Strategy.

The National Hydrogen Strategy was developed by a Taskforce led by Australia’s Chief Scientist, Dr Alan Finkel. It sets out actions for the development of a clean, innovative, safe and competitive hydrogen industry, as well as development signals against scenarios and measures of success.

The 57 joint action by Australian governments are themed around seven areas:

National coordination
Developing production capacity, supported by local demand
Responsive regulation
International engagement
Innovation and R&D
Skills and workforce
Community confidence

The actions consider hydrogen in relation to exports, transport, industrial use, gas networks, electricity systems, and cross-cutting issues such as safety, skills, and environmental impacts.

In support of the Strategy, Geoscience Australia launched the Australian Hydrogen Opportunities Tool. AusH2 allows users to search for potential hydrogen production sites using powerful and customisable geospatial data capability.

South Australia

Premier Steven Marshall released South Australia’s Hydrogen Action Plan in late September 2019. The plan sets out twenty actions across five key areas to help scale-up renewable hydrogen production for export and domestic consumption.

The five areas are:

Facilitate investments in hydrogen infrastructure
Establish a world class regulatory framework
Deepen trade relationships and supply capabilities
Foster innovation and workforce skills development
Integrate hydrogen into the SA energy system

In October 2020 the SA Government released its Hydrogen Export Modelling Tool and Hydrogen Export Prospectus.

The Hydrogen Export Modelling Tool assists potential investors with an indicative view of a potential range of South Australian clean hydrogen export supply chain configurations and free-on-board costs (FOB), leveraging the excellent energy resources in South Australia. The Tool is informed by a detailed pre-feasibility study commissioned by the Department for Energy and Mining in 2020 on behalf of the Government of South Australia.

Queensland

In September 2022 – Queensland Government announced a $62 billion Queensland Energy and Jobs plan that sets out a renewable energy target of 70% renewable energy by 2032 and 80% by 2035.

Hydrogen-specific components of the plan include:

A new Queensland SuperGrid connecting solar, wind, battery and hydrogen generators across the State
Publicly owned coal fired-power stations to convert to clean energy hubs to transition to, for example, hydrogen power
Building Queensland’s first hydrogen ready gas turbine
Up to $15 million to supercharge renewable hydrogen hubs
Up to $5 million to rollout a renewable hydrogen awareness program over three years

The link below provides further details for industry, businesses, communites, workers and households about the plan.

In May 2019, the Queensland Government released the Queensland Hydrogen Industry Strategy 2019-2024. The strategy focuses on:

Supporting innovation
Facilitating private sector investment
Ensuring an effective policy framework
Building community awareness and confidence
Facilitating skills development for new technology.

The strategy includes a $15 million industry development fund to support hydrogen projects in Queensland.

The link below also provides access to guidance for local governments, an investor toolkit, and an interactive map showing renewable hydrogen projects in Queensland.

Western Australia

The Western Australian Renewable Hydrogen Strategy was launched by the Minister for Regional Development, the Hon Alannah MacTiernan MLC on Thursday, 18 July 2019.

The Strategy sets out the State Government’s strategic areas of focus for the development of the industry in Western Australia:

Export
Remote applications
Hydrogen blending in natural gas networks
Transport

This was followed by a Renewable Hydrogen Roadmap in November 2020.

The Western Australian Government is investing $28 million to drive the development of a renewable hydrogen industry in Western Australia.

Victoria

On 25 February 2021, the Victorian Government released the Renewable Hydrogen Industry Development Plan.

The Renewable Hydrogen Industry Development Plan provides a blueprint for Victoria to become an energy superpower and to fast-track the renewable hydrogen sector.

Victoria also has the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) is a world-first pilot project to safely and efficiently produce and transport clean hydrogen from Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, Australia to Japan.

The project could potentially bring billions of dollars of international investment to Victoria and Australia, create a significant number of jobs across the pilot and commercial phase construction and operations and position Australia as a global leader in the supply of clean hydrogen energy.

Tasmania

The Tasmanian Government has outlined its vision and a suite of actions to develop a renewable hydrogen industry in Tasmania. The Renewable Hydrogen Action Plan was released in March 2020, with a funding package of $50 million to encourage investment in the hydrogen industry.

The Government’s vision is for Tasmania to become a leader in large-scale renewable hydrogen production, and a significant global supplier of renewable hydrogen from 2030.

New South Wales

In October 2021, the NSW Government released its NSW Hydrogen Strategy.

The Strategy provides up to $3 billion in incentives to commercialise hydrogen supply chains and significantly reduce the cost of green hydrogen.

Key actions under the NSW Hydrogen Strategy include:

establishing green hydrogen hubs, starting in the Illawarra and Hunter regions
providing a 90 per cent exemption from electricity network use of system charges for green hydrogen producers who connect to parts of the network with existing available capacity
establishing a new Renewable Fuel Scheme with a legislated hydrogen target reaching eight petajoules (67,000 tonnes) by 2030
providing exemptions for green hydrogen production from Government electricity schemes, such as the Energy Savings Scheme
supporting the development of a hydrogen refuelling network and heavy vehicle trials across NSW’s key freight corridors.

Northern Territory

The NT Government released its Renewable Hydrogen Strategy in July 2020.

The Strategy sets out a five-point action plan, addressing:

Local industry development
Resource management
Growing and harnessing demand
Supporting innovation
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