Toyota and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena) will kick in $7.4m to transform part of the carmaker’s decommissioned car manufacturing site in Altona into a commercial-grade hydrogen production and refuelling site.
The new centre will demonstrate the processes required to produce hydrogen from renewable sources through electrolysis, and then the subsequent compression and storage.
Arena says the centre, once operational, will produce at least 60kg of renewable hydrogen each day, with onsite solar PV and battery storage providing electricity to support the energy requirements of the project.
The president and chief executive of Toyota Australia, Matt Callachor, says the new centre on the Altona site will contribute to the carmaker meeting its target of zero CO2 emissions from sites and vehicles by 2050.
“Hydrogen has the potential to play a pivotal role in the future because it can be used to store and transport energy from wind, solar and other renewable sources to power many things, including vehicles like the Toyota Mirai fuel cell electric vehicle,” Callachor said.
“Right now, the biggest factor to the success of hydrogen being widely available is the lack of infrastructure,” the Toyota chief said. “The sooner we move to a zero-emissions society, the better, and Toyota is committed to making this a reality.”
The Morrison government has opened public consultations on a national hydrogen strategy, after engaging Australia’s chief scientist to develop a roadmap with the cooperation of Canberra and the states.
The Coalition’s move follows a commitment from Labor in January to set aside $1bn in funding from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation for clean hydrogen development, and to invest up to $90m from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency for research, demonstration and pre-commercial deployment of hydrogen technologies.
Hydrogen is being promoted as a replacement for natural gas. It is being used overseas in the transport sector and in electricity generation.
Last December, the chief scientist, Alan Finkel, recommended state and federal energy ministers take three immediate steps to develop the industry. He recommended work to allow up to 10% hydrogen in the domestic gas network, including making the required regulatory changes and implementation of technical standards.
He said governments should scope potential for building hydrogen refuelling stations in every state and territory, focused on heavy transport, and undertake what he termed “co-ordinated international outreach to keep building Australia’s profile with major trading partners as a potential supplier”.
Finkel said heavy vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells could meet increasing demand for zero-emissions transport, and replacing natural gas with hydrogen was an economical way of decarbonising direct combustion.
The Arena chief executive officer, Darren Miller, said on Tuesday the demonstration of low-cost hydrogen production and distribution on the Altona site “is key to the uptake of hydrogen-powered electric vehicles in areas such as truck, bus and government fleets”.
Miller welcomed Toyota’s decision to invest in local hydrogen infrastructure.
“Australia holds a competitive advantage to play a global role in the emerging hydrogen export market due to our existing expertise and infrastructure,” the Arena chief said.
The energy minister, Angus Taylor, said Australia had the potential to be a “world leader in hydrogen” because of abundant energy resources and proximity to emerging export markets in north Asia.
Toyota’s electrolyser and hydrogen refuelling station is expected to be fully operational by late 2020.
