Ritesh Awasthi shares an article on the potential of Australia’s national hydrogen situation.
Was a recent article in Bloomberg a concerning obituary of a promising technology that has the potential to accelerate our fight against Climate Change? Dig deeper, and you realize, not really! It is, however, a timely warning for a course correction, as the stake are high, and especially for Australia. According to CSIRO there are ~100 Hydrogen Projects in different stage of development and that is why it is not important to learn from mistake of others as we definitely do not have enough time to make them ourselves. Our only hope in timely fight against climate change will require concentration of resources, efforts stemming from the acknowledgement that…
Rapid decarbonization of our grid is single most timely and viable option. Electricity and Heat Production account for 25% of Global GHG emission and it also has a snowball effect on Transportation emission (14%) and Industrial Emission (another 21%). Imagine efficacy and adoption of EV, rapid industrial decarbonation due move to emission free technologies enabled by cleaner, cheaper electricity. Good news is that we have proven technologies (wind & solar), and we have more than enough potential to service all our needs.
Our single most challenge in achieving 1. is ensuring the stability of renewable energy grid. This where Hydrogen comes in and could be a game changer.
What we don’t need, and what might not work
We need more active and involved strategy, plan around Hydrogen and in the context of our existing energy infrastructure. We do not need Snowy Hydro 3.0 (Snowy Hydro 2.0 was bad enough), we do not need Nuclear (a definite no go) and we also do not need massive experimentation like Compressed Air Storage. In short, we do want to be locked in these massive, money sinkholes that take decades to start to operate, if we are lucky.
Snowy Hydro 2.0 was announced in 2017 and was estimated to cost $2 Billion. Current estimates are $12 Billion, and counting, with a completion date in 2029 (fingers crossed). Pumped Hydro is a proven technology, and Snowy Hydro 2.0 when functional will help, but there are so many geospatial variables with such projects that are never proven till they are operational. We simply do not have time to wait for these so called expensive proven-technology experiments.
Key points include:
- Gas new generation capacity
- 4 distinct kinds of hydrogen projects
- National hydrogen strategy
Read the full article, Unleashing Australian Hydrogen Potential, on LinkedIn.