$61.5 million boost for WA’s renewable hydrogen industry

Western Australia has boosted funding to the state’s green hydrogen industries with an additional $61.5 million announced for a series of low-carbon projects.

A new $50 million fund, included in the 2021-22 budget, will be used to stimulate local demand for renewable hydrogen in transport and industrial settings and to drive investment into renewable hydrogen.

Funding will develop and upgrade infrastructure at the Oakajee Strategic Industrial Area (SIA) to establish a major renewable hydrogen hub in the Mid-West.

$7.5 million will go towards building an access road into the Oakajee SIA to kick-start activation of the precinct.

An additional $4 million will plan for additional infrastructure requirements, and to bolster the Renewable Hydrogen Unit within the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation.

There is also further investment in industry-led feasibility studies into renewable hydrogen projects:

• BP Australia will receive $300,000 to progress their Kwinana Clean Fuels Hub proposal, which would see BP’s existing Kwinana refinery facility used for green hydrogen and clean fuel production
• APT Management Services will receive $300,000 to study the conversion of the Parmelia gas pipeline into a 100 per cent hydrogen pipeline
• And Global Energy Ventures will receive $300,000 to evaluate the technical and commercial feasibility of exporting green hydrogen to the Asia-Pacific from the Gascoyne utilising a compressed hydrogen shipping solution.

The studies are supported by the government’s existing $15 million Renewable Hydrogen Fund, part of almost $30 million previously committed under the WA Renewable Hydrogen Strategy.

More information on the Renewable Hydrogen Fund is available here.

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