Delivering on Western Australia’s 2030 hydrogen-ambition

Recently I had the opportunity to participate on a CEDA panel discussion to unpack how we can deliver on WA’s hydrogen ambition. I was joined by the WA Minister for Regional Development; Agriculture and Food; Hydrogen Industry, The Hon. Alannah MacTiernan MLC. Jason Crusan, VP Technology from Woodside Energy and Russell James, GM Business Development West from ATCO.

So, what did we discuss? What was different about this session compared to many other hydrogen-related industry events? And how does the WA discussion differ compared with the other Australian states?

Well, the biggest thing for me is that in WA, we’ve well and truly moved the conversation forward from what and why to the HOW mode. We’re no longer debating if hydrogen has a role to play.

So, how do we keep our foot on the pedal?

Below are my top five key take-outs from the discussion around the necessary steps to continue to harness the hydrogen potential:

• Create demand and the rest will follow – there is no doubt that the WA Government has been on the front foot with funding levers to spark the industry. Our collective challenge is maintaining momentum in the context of an uncertain market demand scenario – all states are facing the same challenge. We must collaborate to spark and foster our international trade relationships to sure up export options and domestic end uses.
• It’s time to consider stepping away from ‘picking winners’ through grants and move to a market-based approach where government bridges the gap between suppliers and buyers of hydrogen. The role of the WA Government and other government funders will ideally evolve to continue to help drive the industry forward; gap payments and incentives for market participants such as clean fuel rebates, and even acting as a market intermediary, will be key in this next phase of development.
• Our Government is committed to focusing on keeping projects moving. The WA Government highlighted its proposed approach to regulating the first major hydrogen project for WA by ‘sandboxing’ it while a wider regulatory framework is firmed up. Based on the experience of one of the panel members it was estimated that there is somewhere between 150 and 200 pieces of legislation that may have a relationship to hydrogen. What does this mean? It means that the WA Government will need to seek to sensibly and responsibly find a way to progress approvals to help keep projects moving while this complicated wider piece of work is done.
• This is a swiftly moving technology space and we’d be wise to keep our eyes on the horizon and continue to maintain our collective awareness of how electrolysers develop, as well as other technologies.
• Large-scale renewables is the key enabler for the green hydrogen market, so how do we put this on a ‘turbo-booster’ in a way that supports best practice principles to build community support and advocacy for green hydrogen? At GHD, we work closely with our clients and the community to address the broad spectrum of requirements often associated with green hydrogen projects, including environmental approvals and permits, land access, landholder engagement and working commercially and side by side in collaboration with native title traditional owners.
  
  

Overall, I walked away with the strong sense that the future for hydrogen is indeed bright – the opportunity is now. Yes, we have an opportunity to get it right from the very beginning, however, it will take courage to collaborate. It will take relentless advocacy and leadership from governments, academia, project proponents and the professional services industry which serves them.

If you would like to read more about GHD’s thoughts on hydrogen and the energy transition, please check out our Insights page.

GHD has also recently published an insightful global whitepaper on the ‘World of Energy Post-COVID’.