Australia wants to be on the forefront of hydrogen research

For the past decade, the European Union has been widely recognized as a pioneer in renewable energy and the recently launched new hydrogen strategy has only served to cement its references. The EU has a very ambitious plan to install 40 gigawatts of electrolysers within its borders by 2030 and support the development of another 40 gigawatts of green hydrogen in nearby countries that can be exported to the EU. That is a good 320 times the currently installed capacity of 250 MW worldwide. But a desert state could soon make the EU's hydrogen plans seem boring: Australia is single-handedly developing a monster project with 15,000 megawatts that will produce hydrogen for export and could turn the world's driest continent into the "Saudi Arabia of renewable energies". The $ 20 billion project, dubbed the Asian renewable energy hub, is set to become the world's largest wind-solar hybrid, using the vast amounts of renewable energy generated to produce hydrogen for export. It's a classic example of the ultimate boom in the hydrogen economy, with some experts predicting that hydrogen could soon become a globally traded source of energy, just like oil and gas. As part of the mega-project, a 5,000-megawatt hydrogen export facility powered by renewable energy is being developed in Western Australia in the remote town of Kalbarri off the coast of the Indian Ocean, approximately 2,715 miles from Sydney. However, given the challenges of transporting hydrogen, the first phase of the Kalbarri project aims initially to mix the hydrogen directly with natural gas to reduce its carbon footprint. At the beginning of the year, the UK was one of the first countries to successfully implement hydrogen injection into the grid, injecting the gas into its natural gas network to produce a 20% hydrogen / natural gas mixture - the highest in Europe. A 20 percent volume mix allows customers to continue using their existing gas appliances and pipelines without the need for additional adjustments. According to ITM Power, the company running a pilot project at Keele University, a 20% hydrogen blend rolled out across the country could save ~ 6 million tons of CO2 emissions annually, which is roughly the equivalent of 2, 5 million cars taken off the road.