MORE than A$3 billion of renewable projects are vying for funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s A$70 million green hydrogen fund.

The fund was announced in April to help fast track the development of renewable hydrogen, and closed several weeks ago with ARENA receiving 36 expressions of interest in the round. 

The funding round is expected to play a significant role in supporting commercial-scale deployments of renewable hydrogen in Australia help meet energy minister Angus Taylor's goal of hydrogen production for under A$2 a kilo or ‘H2 under $2'.

"The strong interest in the Morrison government's Renewable Hydrogen Deployment Funding Round shows Australian industry is ready to co-invest with government and build a sustainable hydrogen sector," Taylor said today. 

Labor's climate spokesman Mark Butler said the massive oversubscription was evidence the government underestimates the potential of Australia's green hydrogen sector. 

"The scheme was oversubscribed and underfunded," he said. 

"The Morrison government never had any intention to properly invest in hydrogen development."

ARENA aims to use the funding round to support two or more large scale renewable hydrogen projects with electrolysers of a minimum 5 megawatt capacity with a preference for 10MW or larger. 

The expressions of interest include over $1 billion in total grant requests, over $3 billion in total combined project value and almost 500MW of electrolysis capacity. 

ARENA said projects selected in the funding round can also be considered for further financing from the government-backed Clean Energy Finance Corporation under its own $300 million Advancing Hydrogen Fund.

ARENA said it will now assess the expression of interest and invited shortlisted projects to submit a full application with the goal to award funding by the end of the calendar year. 

Source: Energy News Bulletin

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