Operations have commenced at Loy Yang Power Station and Hastings hydrogen liquefication, storage and loading terminal to turn brown coal into hydrogen.
Federal Member for Gippsland Darren Chester said the Federal Government had committed $50 million to the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) Pilot project at Loy Yang Power Station.
“The HESC project produces hydrogen from the Valley’s abundant resource of brown coal and is the world’s first demonstration of hydrogen supply chain from fuel source,” Mr Chester said.
“The pilot project turns brown coal into hydrogen to continue to diversify our energy sources for use in cars, electricity generation and industry.
“It offers great opportunities for our region and the nation creating 400 jobs both in the Latrobe Valley and Port of Hastings and has the potential to create more.
“The regional hydrogen export hub is also supporting local jobs and businesses.”
Mr Chester said the Federal Government had invested over $95 million in the CarbonNet project and $50 million to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
“In September last year the Government announced a $1.9 billion investment package for future technologies to lower emissions, including hydrogen as a priority technology,” Mr Chester said.
“This includes $70.2 million for the creation of a regional hydrogen export hub, research collaborations and international supply chain studies to demonstrate and deploy hydrogen technology.
“Gippsland is also now one of Australia’s Regional Hydrogen Clusters with a cluster of more than 70 businesses and industry bodies and state government departments.”
Gippsland will play a pivotal role in accelerating the development, deployment and commercialisation of the Australian hydrogen energy.
The project is co-funded by a Japanese led consortium ($230 million), the Japanese Government ($166 million), the Federal Government ($50 million) and the Victorian Government ($50 million).
The first shipment of hydrogen from Victoria to Japan is expected to occur by June 2021.
