Nearly half of all SA hydrogen projects quietly ‘archived’
Of the 15 previously “active” hydrogen projects in South Australia, seven have been quietly moved to a list of “archived” projects on a government website.
Just eight hydrogen projects in South Australia are active, with a further seven moved quietly to a list of archived projects on the CSIRO website.
This list of archived projects includes the South Australian Government’s $600 million hydrogen facility, which was shelved in February with funds diverted to support businesses in Whyalla following the administration of the city’s steelworks.
Other archived projects include Neoen Australia’s Crystal Brook Energy Park near Port Pirie – which received $1 million in state government funding for a feasibility study – and the company’s proposed hydrogen export project near Burra which received state government approval in 2021.
Singapore-based Trafigura Group’s Port Pirie Green Hydrogen Project is also on the archived list. That project would have created a large-scale renewable-based hydrogen manufacturing facility at Port Pirie, with a $5 million front end engineering design study for the Port Pirie Green Hydrogen Project jointly funded by the company and the state government.
Further, AGL’s Torrens Island Green Hydrogen Hub was archived in October last year, with the energy giant noting market, pricing and regulatory pathway challenges when announcing the project was paused “indefinitely”.
A joint South Australian and Victorian project being led by Australian Gas Networks has also been archived.
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The organisation was investigating the feasibility of 10 per cent renewable hydrogen in gas distribution networks, transitioning to 100 per cent hydrogen over the long term in both states. The project attracted Victorian and South Australian government funding.
Meanwhile, the South Australian Government’s Port Bonython Hydrogen Hub is included on the list of archived projects with the caveat it has been moved to HyResource’s Hubs Webpage.
In operation
The majority of South Australian hydrogen projects remain active, including one operational project: Australian Gas Networks’ Hydrogen Park South Australia located at the Tonsley Innovation District.
The Tonsley project is just one of 15 hydrogen projects nationally that are operational. In Australia, there are 92 active hydrogen projects either under development, in construction or pre-operational.
According to the CSIRO data, the next South Australian project set to become operational is Marubeni Corporation’s Green Hydrogen and Battery Energy Storage System.
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This $17.5 million project – funded jointly by Japan’s Ministry of the Environment and the company – is expected to be operational this year, and consists of a demonstrator scale hydrogen production and battery storage system at Bolivar. It’s considered a “proof of concept” project for the transport of hydrogen absorbed in a metal hydride tank for safe handling and utilisation in Indonesia.
Kimberly-Clark’s Millicent Mill Green Hydrogen Project is another active project. At this stage it is just a feasibility study to determine whether to replace the energy supply of Kimberly-Clark’s Millicent Mill with renewables-based hydrogen.
Another project “under development” by Australian Gas Infrastructure Group is the proposed Hydrogen Park Adelaide which would blend renewable hydrogen with natural gas at volumes of up to 20 per cent into Adelaide’s gas network by 2028. The project is working towards financial close before the end of 2025.
Amp’s Cape Hardy Green Hydrogen Project is another “under development” project that is estimated to cost $40 billion. It would see Amp create a green hydrogen and green ammonia production facility on the Eyre Peninsula in partnership with Iron Road Ltd.
Other projects “under development” but with no operational date announced include The Hydrogen Utility’s Eyre Peninsula Gateway Project, Hallett Group’s Green Cement Decarbonisation Project, and Vast’s SM1 project at Port Augusta.
Premier Peter Malinauskas told ABC Radio Adelaide yesterday that the state government was “dramatically curtailing the Office of Hydrogen Power”.
“There’s work that is being led by my Department, the Department of Premier and Cabinet at the moment, in conjunction with the Department of Energy and Mining to actually work out what that looks like and where it ends up. There will still be some work that is being done within government about hydrogen because it’s not just about the steelworks, it’s about other opportunities as well, but it’s going to be in a very, very smaller state,” he said.
“At the moment the office is there, it’s been curtailed, there is work that should continue because it’s in the economic interests of the state but in terms of what happens to that particular unit that is being worked through as we speak.”
