NSW puts $64 million into two green hydrogen hubs amid $1.5 billion in incentives now on the table

The NSW government is investing $64 million into the state’s the first two green hydrogen hub projects, in the Illawarra and Moree, as it also opens up applications for $1.5 billion in concessions for large-scale green hydrogen producers.

The initial recipients are the BOC Illawarra Hydrogen Technology Hub and Sundown’s Keytah cotton farm near Moree.

The Illawarra project includes a 10 megawatt electrolyser at Port Kembla to produce four tonnes of green hydrogen daily for at least four hydrogen refueling stations that could power up to 40 heavy vehicles. In the long term, the project hopes to have 650 megawatt in electrolyser capacity.

Moree involves a 12 megawatt electrolyser to convert green hydrogen and air captured nitrogen into green ammonia used to fertilise farms in the region. The project hopes to ramp up to 112 megawatt capacity in order to abate 283,929 tonnes of emissions by 2030.

Treasurer and energy minister Matt Kean said he’s hoping the taxpayer investment will drive down the cost of green hydrogen by around 40% to the government’s target of less than $2.80 per kilo by 2030 and attract an estimated $80 billion in private investment by 2050.

“These incentives will set us up for success as we compete with the high-profile US Inflation Reduction Act hydrogen incentives, because the NSW concessions can apply to projects finishing well beyond 2030, while the US program finishes in 2032,” he said.

“At the same time, green hydrogen producers across NSW are now able to access $1.5 billion in concessions to reduce costs for large scale investment, including up to a 90 per cent reduction in their electricity network charges if they connect to parts of the grid with spare network capacity.

“Green hydrogen can help drive deep decarbonisation in hard-to-abate market segments within the transport, industrial and energy sectors which account for around 18% of NSW’s annual emissions.

More on the NSW Hydrogen Strategy is available here.

The announcement comes as the NSW government goes into caretaker mode ahead of the state election on March 25.