Growing Australia’s hydrogen supply chain with Germany

Together, Australia and Germany are growing Australia’s green hydrogen export industry, helping Australia to become a renewable energy superpower and meeting Germany’s future demand for green hydrogen.

Australian Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen and German Minister for Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger announced funding for four new joint projects under the German–Australian Hydrogen Innovation and Technology Incubator (HyGATE) initiative in Berlin today.

The initiative strengthens Australian-German collaboration to reduce the cost of green hydrogen production and supports cutting-edge technology in the industry.

Funding of up to AUD$50 million from Australia and up to €50million from Germany for HyGATE was made available to new projects to bolster efforts to establish a green hydrogen supply chain through the Australia-Germany Hydrogen Accord.

Australian funding for the four HyGATE projects announced today include:

• $20.74 million to Edify Energy to develop, construct and operate the Edify Green Hydrogen Project in partnership with Siemens Energy Global to broaden the Australia–Germany supply chain in Townsville, Queensland.

• $19.48 million to Vast Solar to work with Fichtner on the development of a methanol production plant using renewable energy. The plant consists of a 10 MW electrolyser producing green hydrogen for solar methanol production in Port Augusta, South Australia.

• $8.98 million to Hysata to work with Fraunhofer IPT to develop a new ‘capillary-fed’ electrolyser to deliver low-cost hydrogen in Port Kembla, New South Wales.

• $800,000 to ATCO Australia., in partnership with Fraunhofer IST and Fraunhofer IEG, for a feasibility study into deploying an electrolyser and ammonia facility to make advancements in hydrogen technologies and storage in the Illawarra region, New South Wales.

Minister Bowen and Minister Stark-Watzinger also released a joint summary report on the German-Australian Hydrogen Feasibility Study (HySupply), (https://www.globh2e.org.au/hysupply-publication), a crucial step in growing a shared hydrogen market and collective clean energy potential.

The report makes it clear that a green hydrogen supply chain between Australia and Germany is both feasible and highly desirable. It also outlines the future actions for Australia and Germany to establish trade in renewable hydrogen between both nations as identified in the HySupply State of Play and Demand and Supply-side Roadmapping reports. 

By 2050, through partnerships like these, Australia’s hydrogen industry could generate $50 billion in additional GDP and create over 16,000 jobs, as well as an additional 13,000 jobs from the construction of renewable energy infrastructure to power the production of green hydrogen.

Minister Bowen and German Vice Chancellor and Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck have agreed to expand Australia and Germany’s energy cooperation by extending the Australia-Germany Energy Partnership to include climate. This will elevate our partnership and provide an avenue to expand on our collective energy and climate ambitions.

They also discussed the ambitious H2Global hydrogen trading mechanism initiative which presents an opportunity to further develop a global hydrogen market.

Quotes attributable to Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen MP:

“Collaboration with Germany will help grow Australia’s hydrogen export market and support our nation’s vision of becoming a renewable energy superpower.”

“These projects demonstrate Australia’s role as a world leader in renewable energy production, reducing the cost of hydrogen production and paving the way for exports.”

Quotes attributable to Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger, German Minister of Education and Research:

“Working hand-in-hand with our international partners will help Germany to phase out coal-fired power generation by 2038 and aid Australia to reach net zero by 2050.”

“Germany will continue to work with Australia to develop a clean, cost-effective green hydrogen supply chain to support our respective economies.”

Quotes attributable to Minister Robert Habeck, German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action:

“Our energy and climate cooperation with Australia is of utmost importance and I expressly welcome the Australian Government's increased ambitions to accelerate its energy transition and climate protection.”

"I am pleased that we have decided to extend the Australia-Germany Energy Partnership to include climate, so that we can work more closely together in this area in the future.”

“Hydrogen continues to be of particular importance to our cooperation and we want to build on the complementary interests of our countries.”