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Buses, concrete mixers, rubbish trucks and road trains powered by green hydrogen could hit West Australian roads in the next 18 months.
Key points:
- Infinite Green Energy believes Northam will be home to the country's first commercial-scale green hydrogen facility
- The plan is to use renewable energy to power haulage trucks and other heavy vehicles
- Experts say green hydrogen could play a key role in the decarbonisation of manufacturing and heavy vehicles
Proponents of a new green hydrogen plant under construction in Northam, an hour east of Perth, say the facility will be the first in the country to commercially produce green hydrogen for vehicles.
Last week, the project picked up a $5-million grant from the state government to help kick things along.
The project is owned by Infinite Green Energy (IGE) in partnership with Samsung C&T Engineering & Construction and Doral Energy Group.
IGE chief executive and founder Stephen Gauld said it would produce four tonnes of hydrogen per day — enough renewable energy to power 78 Class 8 heavy haul trucks.
Mr Gauld spoke to the ABC in between test drives of new hydrogen-powered vehicles in Europe.
"We're focused on … the heavy haul market," he said.
"As the market evolves, we'll eventually have green electricity into data centres as Northam expands.
"We're also looking at shunt trains."
While locals may not have noticed anything different as they pass the farmlands along Old York Road, change is afoot.
Over the next 18 months, IGE is planning to double the Northam Solar Farm, build five wind turbines, construct several single-story buildings, a hydrogen plant and a hydrogen fuel station.
Jobs and growth
Mr Gauld said pending approvals from a joint development assessment panel and the Shire of Northam, earthworks would begin in October and the plant would be online by the end of 2024 or early 2025.
He said local contractors would carry out much of the construction work.
"The earthworks and civils will be awarded to the companies who have helped us so far with the early works," Mr Gauld said.
"Also, there's a local company that does prefabricated buildings and also the maintenance facilities for the vehicles on the site."
Maintenance work starting next month will bring 30 workers in from elsewhere.
IGE has already run into problems finding accommodation for these employees and the region's well-documented housing shortage has forced the company to find a short-term solution.
"What we're doing, temporarily, is we're running a shuttle bus, a coach everyday from Perth," Mr Gauld said.
"Carting 30 people a day — it's not the best way to do it.
"[We] might end up having to put a temporary, small camp at site during construction.
"The last thing we want to be doing is running shuttle buses from Perth every day and every night."
Mr Gauld expects the facility will require about 200 people to run.
If all goes according to plan, the Northam plant will be one of the biggest of its kind in Australia.
But it was actually designed as a demonstration facility ahead of IGE's much larger project — the planned Arrowsmith Hydrogen Plant in Dongara.
That facility is expected to produce enough power run at least 700 road trains per day when it comes online, which is scheduled for 2028.
Several other large green hydrogen projects are planned for WA, including the Oakagee hub outside Geraldton, which will be focused on exports, and the Pilbara Hydrogen Hub, which will produce hydrogen and ammonia near Karratha.
Good fit for some
Hydrogen has been used in a range of sectors for decades but the way it is produced leads to significant CO2 emissions.
But experts believe green hydrogen will play a crucial role in reaching net-zero.
The green method is achieved through electrolysis, meaning an electrical current is used to separate hydrogen from oxygen within water.
The power used to do this is generated by solar and wind farms.
The hydrogen can be placed in a fuel cell or used as a feedstock in manufacturing.
When it is used the only by-product is steam.
Curtin University associate professor Liam Wagner said it was unlikely hydrogen would be used in our homes or cars, where electrification seemed like the cheaper, easier and more efficient route to go down.
But he said green hydrogen was ideal in situations where other types of renewables fell short.
"It's absolutely vital, particularly for difficult-to-decarbonise heavy industry, manufacturing and bulk transport — manufacturing, aluminium, cement and copper, and other mining minerals processing," Dr Wagner said.
"It's not going to be a silver bullet — there is no silver bullet.
"It's a shotgun of lots and lots of different things to make it all work together."
Barriers remain
Dr Wagner said red tape and the legacy of the previous federal government's energy policies continued to inhibit green hydrogen projects.
"There are regulatory barriers even in shipping hydrogen as ammonia, in using it in pipelines, and in putting in an electrolyser," he said.
"I think the industry is really crying out for direction — obviously the last 10 years have been a vacuum on energy policy in Australia.
"That has been extremely difficult to plan for and to know which technology even to invest in."
Dr Wagner said Australia needed a lot more renewable energy – and fast – to decarbonise some of the country's most lucrative exports and avoid tariffs.
"We're going to be faced with international trade barriers being imposed on us by European nations to export our raw materials," he said.
"I think there will also be some issues with countries that have fairly carbon intensive material manufacturing and they'll just find somewhere else to sell it.
"Our domestic market may not be able to compete unless we move quickly."