Is green hydrogen no longer a pipe dream for Australia?

Special Report: Australia must start preparing for a future green hydrogen-driven economy, as experts weigh in on the technology’s growing cost-effectiveness at scale.

While the prospect of creating 100% emission-free energy is still in its relative infancy in Australia, Woodside Petroleum CEO Peter Coleman believes Australia should look no further than the rapid expansion of markets for gas and LNG in Japan and Korea as critical examples for why Australia must start preparing a consolidated framework for a green hydrogen future.

This would allow the country to overcome present limitations around cost and transportation as the deployment of green hydrogen becomes a critical part of Australia’s future economy, he said.

“The technology is there, we know what the cost curves are like [and] what we need to do in the market … but you’ve got to manage the energy input with the production [and] distribute [it],” he said at an address at the Perth Convention Centre this week.

“It’s going to be ten years in the coming, and we need to start now.”

Green hydrogen is made using an electrolyser to separate hydrogen from water, resulting in a fuel source without any carbon emissions, so long as the electrolyser is also powered by renewables such as wind and solar.