Green Hydrogen

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:41): My question is to the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment. Can the minister update the council about his engagement with Japan and Korea on the opportunities arising from green hydrogen?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (14:41): I thank the honourable member for his ongoing interest in the renewable energy sector, particularly the hydrogen sector. On Tuesday, I was able to inform the council about the exciting opening of our North Asia trade office in Tokyo, which I attended as part of a broader business mission to the Asian region. Incidentally, at the same time, the Premier was releasing the Joyce review back here while I was busy overseas.

As outlined on Tuesday, the North Asia trade investment office will also cover Korea, which I was lucky enough to visit after our Japan leg. One of the sector priorities of our business mission was exploring the opportunities related to the development of a global hydrogen economy. Both Japan and Korea have signalled a strong desire to decarbonise their economies while still maintaining their economic growth trajectories and meeting the energy needs of their households and industries. They are doing this through a detailed hydrogen strategy. A key component of that is the development of a global hydrogen supply chain.

The federal government, along with state counterparts, has seen the opportunities and is collectively driving a national hydrogen strategy to capitalise on these opportunities. Credit where it is due, the previous government commenced the process of developing a South Australian hydrogen strategy, and the Marshall government is keen to further progress the strategy. In fact, it is now in the hands of a government that actually understands renewable energy and wants to progress particularly the hydrogen strategy.

Let me be clear: this is a long-term opportunity. A significant amount of technical innovation and global infrastructure and investment will be required before we see any significant trade occurring. Since the South Australian strategy was launched in September 2017, the world has moved on considerably. I was fortunate enough to hear from some of the key players in both Japan and Korea. I was able to visit a hydrogen refuelling station in Tokyo and ride in a Toyota Mirai. There are currently around 3,000 hydrogen vehicles on the road in Japan, and they have an ambitious target to scale up to 40,000 by 2021. These will need to be supported by at least 80 refuelling stations across Japan by this state.

It is interesting to note that if you look at this chamber here, all 22 members of us, there are two of us who actually took an interest in hydrogen some 15 years ago and visited the hydrogen bus trial in Perth, Western Australia, those being the Hon. Terry Stephens and myself. At the time the minister in Western Australia said that apart from the Hon. Robert Hill, great South Australian senator that he was, who funded that project, the only other two MPs in the entire nation to visit it were the Hon. Terry Stephens and me. That was 15 years ago, before, I might add, all the members right the way around to here were even elected. We have had a longstanding interest and commitment to hydrogen. The next stage of our journey—

The Hon. J.E. Hanson: How were we meant to go if we were not MPs? How were we meant to go? I am not here yet. What's the logical point?

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Hanson, feel free to ask that question when I give you the call.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: The next stage of our journey was a meeting with the Green Ammonia Consortium. This is where South Australia has a real competitive advantage. We have some unique locations with abundant solar and wind resources that can be used to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, known as electrolysis. An interesting development in the last 48 hours is: a researcher at Stanford University has been able to take hydrogen straight from sea water without having to desalinate it. So I think there is some very exciting news to come. Of course, we can power all this with the wonderful supply of renewable energy we have on the West Coast.

Japan is looking to use ammonia as a carrier technology to transport hydrogen. We were keen to hear about the plans of this consortia to see how South Australia can potentially be a part of this process. We then moved on to Korea, where I met with the deputy minister for energy and resources, Mr Young Joo; he emphasised the Korean government's commitment to developing a hydrogen economy and saw many opportunities for South Australia and Korea to realise a shared vision.

I also then met with H2 Korea, a consortia of Korean companies that are looking to develop a liquid hydrogen export supply chain. The group of companies that make up the consortia are looking to make significant investments in renewable energy, port infrastructure and shipping technology across the globe. The two countries present an amazing long-term opportunity for the state and the nation. I was privileged to take the next step on this exciting journey. I have no doubt that this opportunity will provide highly skilled jobs in the future for South Australians, and position our state for investment and export-led growth over many years and decades to come.