Renewable Hydrogen

Ms LUETHEN (King) (14:47): My question is to the Minister for Energy and Mining. Can the minister please update the house on what the Marshall Liberal government has achieved in positioning South Australia as a world-class supplier of renewal hydrogen, and is the minister aware of any alternate plans?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order: the question itself contains debate and is out of order.

The SPEAKER: I think it's a matter of fine judgement. I will allow the member for King to ask the question again. I will listen carefully. The member for King may wish to rephrase the question.

Ms LUETHEN: Can the minister update the house on what the Marshal Liberal government has achieved in plans to become a supplier of renewable hydrogen?

The SPEAKER: I am going to allow the question.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart—Deputy Premier, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:48): Thank you to the member for King, a very sensible, focused question on one of the key issues confronting our state at the moment and certainly key opportunities as well.

It should not have escaped the attention of this house that last financial year our state achieved 3.9 per cent gross state product, leading in the nation, the highest annual gross state product growth in the entire nation. That is no accident. We are focused on the things that matter in this state, the things that matter to South Australians, and one of them is the potential for a world-class hydrogen economy here in South Australia.

When we came to government in 2018, with regard to hydrogen there was a bit of a glossy brochure with not much in it—lots of pictures and no substance—that the previous government had left behind as their pathway forward for hydrogen. Since then we have been incredibly busy turning an opportunity into reality.

In 2019, we released the Hydrogen Action Plan, as we hosted the International Conference on Hydrogen Safety here in Adelaide. We joined the Green Ammonia Consortium and struck numerous MOUs, including with the largest port in Europe, the Port of Rotterdam. We developed our Hydrogen Export Modelling Tool and Prospectus to accelerate projects to market.

Off the back of this, we outlined a new ambition of 500 per cent of current grid demand in renewable energy by 2050 in our Climate Action Plan. The Premier introduced the H2U company to Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, who have taken an equity stake in their Eyre Peninsula Gateway Project. We delivered and opened HyP SA at Tonsley, the largest green hydrogen facility in the country, which is delivering hydrogen blended into natural gas to households in Mitchell Park.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is called to order.

The Hon. D.C. VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: We have industrial users like BOC using green hydrogen made in South Australia in their facility at Whyalla. We seed funded the H2H cluster, which is connecting local businesses together to build the hydrogen ecosystem. We supported the HILT CRC, which secured significant federal funding and which is working with industrial users in South Australia to plan the decarbonisation of industry, including through hydrogen.

We launched the Port Bonython EOI to seek parties for a hydrogen hub, and have recently provided an update that we have shortlisted seven parties of huge stature locally and internationally. They are proposing a globally significant export hub with projects worth tens of billions of dollars. At COP26 in Glasgow, another project was put in lights as Marubeni won Japanese environment department support for hydrogen exports from South Australia to the Indo-Pacific.

Just recently, another project was announced for hydrogen for South Australia, with Kallis Energy developing a gigawatt-scale, renewable hydrogen project that would push us closer to our ambition for 500 per cent renewable energy by 2050.

Compared to that insubstantial glossy brochure that was handed across to us by the Labor Party when we came into government, we have been getting on and doing the job. We are making sure that we grow jobs in South Australia, we are making sure we are reducing the cost of living in South Australia and we are making sure that students have better learning outcomes in South Australia. We are funding health infrastructure all over the state. We are focused on every single part of our economy, whether it be services or whether it be economic benefit—and hydrogen will be a huge part of economic development in our state.

We have already reduced the cost of electricity, through the smart adoption of renewable energy, by over $300 per year per household in South Australia, and hydrogen exports allow us to push further and further into this, including achieving net 100 per cent renewable energy generation by 2030.