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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-11-03 Daily Xml
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Hydrogen Power Plant

Mr HUGHES (Giles) (15:19): I rise today to talk initially about the hydrogen power plant in Whyalla, which was partly initiated by the opening questions from the opposition yesterday. They like to mention the hydrogen power plant. I would exercise a note of caution: when it came to the big battery in this state, the phalanx of Liberals and National Party people who turned up to attack that great initiative, that highly innovative initiative, and who called it a big banana at the time, they are the ones who are looking like big bananas given the success of the battery.

I am confident that the hydrogen power plant will be another one of those projects that will put South Australia at the forefront when it comes to exploiting our massive renewable energy resources. One of the important things with regard to this plant is that it is important the state does take first mover initiative, especially in relation to the construction of a large electrolyser at Whyalla—a 250 megawatt electrolyser. That first mover advantage in the context of hydrogen proposals in Australia will be important. It will be important because at the moment there is something like 147 different hydrogen proposals at different stages in Australia. To take first mover advantage will help us cut through some of that.

I have met with a number of the big companies, not necessarily the companies involved in wanting to construct or contribute to the hydrogen power plant but companies that see this initiative as something incredibly tangible that has amplified their interest in investing in South Australia. It is no secret that a number of large companies are looking to do some potentially exciting things when it comes to hydrogen in my part of the world in Whyalla and to the west of Whyalla.

The scale of some of these projects is seriously ambitious. A lot of it is aimed not only at the overseas market but also at domestic use. Of course, we have to get to the point of demonstrating that we can do this commercially at scale, that we can drive down the production costs of hydrogen using renewable energy to drive electrolysers.

Compared with a lot of other places in the world and in this nation, South Australia is well placed because on the northern part of Eyre Peninsula and further north we have a world-class solar resource that overlaps with a world-class wind resource. We do have that potential to have incredibly cheap energy, and we are going to need cheap electricity to drive the electrolysers.

There has been some critique, and I think it is constructive critique, when it comes to hydrogen. A number of people have expressed some scepticism. Dr Saul Griffith is very much associated with the use of wind and renewables in general to drive what he calls the electrification of everything. A lot of what he has to say makes some sense, but it should not be the electrification of everything because I believe that hydrogen is going to play an important role.

We had another announcement today. It is good to see a big company in my electorate, BHP at Olympic Dam, has just entered into an offtake arrangement with Neoen. Come 2025-26, that is going to meet 50 per cent of Olympic Dam's electricity needs. That, added to the offtake arrangement with the Port Augusta energy park, which was entered into over a year ago, is going to significantly reduce the emissions profile of BHP at Olympic Dam. It is one of those great examples of watching the mining industry greening itself, and hydrogen is going to be an important part of our future.

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