Exploring Hydrogen

De-mystifying economic policy for Hydrogen – “The 5 Levers”, with GHD

Introduction to Ariel:

Ariel Elboim a Senior Advisor for GHD working in the future energy market. A consultant for 10 years, Ariel has worked on the decarbonisation of infrastructure, and renewable energy projects across various sectors, including energy, water and transport. For the past 5 years, his focus has been dedicated to accelerating the growth of the hydrogen industry in Australia. He plays an active role not only through his project work for both private and public clients but also through his engagement with industry, including his position as H2Q Hydrogen Queensland Policy Advocacy Taskforce Lead.

1.45 - About GHD & Ariel's work

GHD is a globally recognised organisation operating in the markets of engineering, architecture, digital, water, energy, environment, and transport. Above 11,000 employees across 5 continents and 120+ offices.

Over the last 4 years, Ariel has been working holistically to accelerate the growth of the hydrogen industry in Australia, and that's been looking at strategic, tactical, operational projects, and more recently, at policy and policy mechanisms and how they can be conducive to the growth of the industry in Australia.

3.00 - The work H2Q Hydrogen Queensland is doing to help translate what industry sentiment is and how that can help inform government policy. They have been doing a lot of engagement and report writing over the last year with a white paper that was released over Christmas.

4.15 -Summary of the 5 levers & examples around the world

Lever # 1 - Tax Regulation

What can the government do in terms of regulatory standards and requirements to influence proponent behaviour, and what kind of tax levers can they use to influence taxpayers' behaviour? 

Regulatory standards and requirements that the government can implement to influence behaviour, or what kind of tax incentives or penalties can the government implement to also influence behaviour?

06.00 - Carbon prices around the world & the Safeguard Mechanism

08.20 - Lever #2 - Tax credits & subsidies

Tax credits and subsidies are an incentive-based policy instrument that provides market-compatible forms of direct government intervention.

09.00 - U. S. Inflation Reduction Act

This offers a tax credit of up to $3 per kilogram of hydrogen produced. That $3 per kilogram is based on the carbon intensity of the product.

10.06 - What can Australia do, even without having such ‘deep pockets’ as the US?

11.20 - Lever #3 - Market based schemes

Market-based schemes are interesting because they're an amalgamation of different mechanisms and they usually consist of a pull mechanism or a lever that tries to pull investment into the market, and a push mechanism, so it pushes proponents to do something.

12.30 - Lever # 4 - Contracts for Difference

This lever is getting a lot of attention across the world at the minute, especially in the hydrogen space. CFDs, Contracts for Differences, are financial contracts between a supplier and a purchaser of energy, provided a certain price. The Contract for Difference stipulates that the purchaser will pay the seller the difference between the market value at the time of contracting.

Essentially a market price is agreed upon, usually called the strike price, and this is based on several factors. It could be the level of CO2 emissions that are being abated. It could be the cost of the fossil fuel plus a green premium, whatever the market decides is a strike price, but everyone agrees that's the baseline.

14.45 - Review periods for Contracts for Difference

"Contracts for Difference usually last for about 10, 12, 15 years and by that point, the market will have readjusted to an equilibrium. And then you reassess it."

17.00 - "The biggest issue in the hydrogen space at the minute and the reason projects aren't getting past FID, or to FID, is because the premium on hydrogen just isn't suitable so you're not able to guarantee a revenue guarantee revenue stream and is probably the biggest killer to projects, from my understanding."

19.15 - Lever #5 - Financing Arrangements

Australia has been pursuing this lever for the last three or four years in terms of getting the hydrogen industry.

Essentially finance is provided as a means to mitigate the inherent risk in developing new projects, new industries, and creating new sectors.

21.20 - Backing of funding in Australia

“There's a difference between picking winners and making strategically good choices. The example is, that we're not going to see a major hydrogen passenger vehicle industry market in Australia anytime soon because the progress that EVs are making is just staggering.

However, if you look at large industries that are hard to abate, like I mentioned steel and iron and alumina, etc. they are clear good strategic options for hydrogen to be implemented."

23.30 - Disadvantages of using each of these mechanisms/examples of where they've not been rolled out successfully

●      Carbon leakage

●      Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism
   

25.30 - Will we get to the stage where Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions are going to be monitored for all countries and organisations?

"One of the actions of the National Hydrogen Strategy was to create a guarantee of origin scheme, which essentially was a certificate to say that the hydrogen that you've produced is, has this carbon intensity.

And that essentially is going to accompany every kilogram of hydrogen in the future that is produced in Australia. So that indicates that the carbon emissions will be monitored very closely."

26.15 - Recommendations for Queensland & Australia

"An export industry based on an already established export-import relationship is a way to go. Australia doesn't have that much to decarbonize in the grand global scheme.

One of the key things to look for would be economic prosperity, and that lies in the export opportunity."

31.45 - Are the policies Australia has in place at the moment sufficient?

"Australia has announced a total of about $35 billion total to support hydrogen. And if you compare that too globally, which is about 350 billion, I think it's less than 10 percent of Australia's investment globally. And that's what it comes down to at the end of the day, the money."

"Australia does have a bit of catching up to do and that's why we're at such a pivotal moment."

33.30 - Hydrogen Head Start Program

The Program is essentially a $2 billion government fund to underwrite project operational costs by providing a production credit for every kilogram of hydrogen produced.

The Energy and Jobs Plan: Only a small fraction of the energy job plan fund has been tapped into because for it to ...

Guest bios:

Denis Thomas is Director of Business Development and Marketing for water electrolysis at Accelera by Cummins, which has acquired the activities of Hydrogenics in 2019.

Before joining the company in 2014, Mr. Thomas worked 8 years in the solar photovoltaic sector in Europe. Mr. Thomas holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration and in Renewable Energy.

Michael Bartsch is the Regional Sales and Business Development manager for water electrolysis at Accelera by Cummins. Before joining the company in 2020, Mr Bartsch worked for 26 years in a mixture of Mining, Petroleum, Water Treatment and Geothermal sectors. Mr. Bartsch is an Industrial Chemist with formal qualifications in Science, Business Administration and Energy.

Cummins is more than 104 years old, specialising in engines and gensets with 70,000 people worldwide. Accelera is a brand within the company that hosts all the new technologies and has five main businesses and between 2000-3,000 employees

2.30 – The main technologies within Accelera

-       Electrolysers

-       Fuel cells

-       Electrified components

-       Power train systems

-       Traction systems

4.00 – Explanation of the different types of electrolysers 
 

-       Alkaline
-       PEM
-       Solid oxide
-       Anion Exchange Membrane

06.30 - PEM - Proton Exchange Membrane. 

08.15 - Solid oxide and Anion Exchange Membrane

09.15 - Concerns about the catalyst being used in PEM technology

10.44 - Sizes of electrolysers that Accelera Manufacture

The products are PEM technology. 30 bar pressure. HyLyzer 500, 1000 and 5000.

13.00 - Interesting and challenging projects across the globe:

The Quebec project is commercial, meaning running the electrolyser daily. The hydrogen is liquefied and then delivered by Air Liquide to industrial customers.

15.30 – Emergence of much larger projects across the globe

Customers are now leaning more toward double-digit and triple-digit production.

16.26 - Learnings through the project in Canada

19.17 - Australian market compared to the rest of the world

The speed to market in the other locations is by far faster at the moment. In Australia, there is a push for regional codes and standards adoption. When products have to be modified before they can be introduced so there's a lag factor there in terms of being able to deploy or modify existing designs for them to be accepted.

“We will initially be importing products mainly from Europe, but it'll get to a point where the project size here in Australia is big enough to justify local manufacturing.”

24.15 – Manufacturing of the Electrolysers
“We've been working a lot on designing new processes and we are implementing them in the different factories. We have started already in Belgium, which was an existing factory. We have built another in Spain that will start production in the first quarter of next year. We will be using this flow-based manufacturing. It is super interesting because it gives us a lot of flexibility.”

25.00 – Current challenges

-       The business case of producing hydrogen; in many cases, it is more expensive than the conventional way of producing hydrogen with natural gas. 

-       The size is increasing, and there is an increased link with renewable power which also brings challenges.  

-       Electrolyser technologies are new so companies need to get used to it

-       Infrastructure challenges - hydrogen storage and pipelines

-       Execution capability

Regulation and policy can be used to play an important role in giving a premium value to hydrogen in comparison to the incumbent technology…Where there is a lack of policy, there is a high uncertainty on those projects, meaning that it is difficult for us to anticipate and forecast the market.

33.13 - Which skillsets will be sought after in the coming years?

35.00 – Advancements in technology

-       Keep monitoring the developments on the commercial market, from universities and institutions. 

-       Need to reduce the cost of technology and the cost of hydrogen (first step is standardisation). 
  

“If you can design a stack that you don't need to replace, it is, I would say, a major advantage. And that's clearly what we are trying to do is to extend the lifetime of our cell stacks.”

38.19 - What can be achieved by Accelera in the next 5-10 years?

-       We are targeting between 6 to 13 billion dollars in revenue by 2030

40.00 - Final thoughts/comments

“We are trying to leverage the synergies of the traditional businesses of Cummins with the new businesses of Accelera, allowing us to advantage of all the people and the infrastructure that we have in place in those 190 countries.”

-       We need stable policies to allow us to make decisions

-       Be patient as there will be a lot of challenges but it is super fascinating and motivating to work in this space

-       The hydrogen sector is like building a plane as we are taking off

Links:

https://www.accelerazero.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/accelerazero/

linkedin.com/in/denis-thomas-cummins

linkedin.com/in/michael-bartsch-48612117

Subtitle: The future of air travel – reach the other side of the world, sustainably, within 4 hours

Destinus is an organisation focusing on creating hypersonic air travel, which is five times the speed of sound, not just supersonic. That is travelling across the world sustainably in as little as four to five hours. They are a young startup company founded only two years ago. Destinus is already working in four countries in Europe; Switzerland, Spain, France and Germany.

Bios:

Bart Van Hoveis the Head of Advanced Studies at Destinus. He studied mechanical and aerospace engineering. He became interested in hypersonics and fluid dynamics at the von Karman Institute, where he worked on hypersonic aerodynamic wind tunnels. He did his PhD on Mars atmospheric entry capsules and has been fascinated by astronomy and science from an early age. Destinus is as close to space as you can reasonably fly on Earth, in the stratosphere at Mach 5. While that’s slow for a planetary lander, it’s insanely fast for a passenger aircraft. Bart likes to work on difficult problems with interesting people.

Philip Silvais a Mechanical Design Engineer for Destinus. He has worked on cutting-edge technologies at the CERN particle physics experiments, the ITER fusion reaction, and has been involved in numerous hydrogen technology projects involving cryogenics and fuel cells. He is responsible for hydrogen business development at Destinus, including mobility and energy generation.

3.00 - Key learnings from the test flights:

The test flights now are subsonic so the aircraft are relatively basic, but they have some special features you don't see in any other plane. There are many things we want to learn about, and one of them is the shape of the aircraft. They are very aggressively shaped to be hypersonic, even though today they fly subsonic.

4.30 - Subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic:

Subsonic is under the speed of sound, supersonic is at the rate of sound, and hypersonic is classified as five times the speed of sound.

5.20 - Overview of Destinus’s Goals

We want to make commercial hypersonic flight real. We want to go a lot faster than Concorde. And we want to make the world like a smaller place where we can go anywhere in less than 2-3 hours. 

6.00 – Is Destinus focussed on specific uses vs revolutionising air transport as a whole

If you look at hydrogen in aviation today, it is usually focused on fuel cells, which is good for short, maybe medium-range travel. We’re working on combustion, and a lot faster. What we are working on is flying to the other side of the world and coming back on the same day. So that means no jet lag and a completely different way in which people will travel.

7 - Amount of fuel to have to keep on board

We're talking about several tons of fuel, which is not crazy in itself, but the volume of hydrogen is very large because the density is low. You have to store this hydrogen in a liquid form, which means it has to be cryogenic, very cold. That's one of the main challenges with these aircraft.

8 - The challenges, when you fly hypersonic compared to supersonic & refuelling

We are very heavily involved in the refuelling and the ground infrastructure. We have recently created a consortium to create infrastructure in an airport in France.

9.30 - Changes required when this comes to fruition

The aircraft are designed to operate at airports and they have to operate in airspace together with classical planes. That reality means we need to be compatible with the airports and beyond the fuel infrastructure and use the runways that exist.

10.30 - Safety aspects of having these aircraft

For the aircraft, we're going to be storing hydrogen in liquid form, so the pressure is very low. It's just much safer so if there's anything that happens the hydrogen will expand, but it will not explode, it will not create a shockwave, for example.

13.00 - Navigating through the legislation:

Hydrogen is slowly making its way into many industries. The operations and handling of hydrogen have been solved in specialized industries and will slowly make their way into the general society.

As for aviation certification and aircraft safety, the basic rules will not change. We have to think about how new technologies can satisfy those rules, but the rules themselves don't have to change.

15.10 - The progression of prototypes and where the design is aiming for in the future

The prototype aircraft is a progression of increasing complexity. We have been flying subsonic aircraft with hypersonic shapes, but subsonic engines, these are jet fuel. And incrementally, progressively, we are introducing hydrogen, going supersonic, later hypersonic.

16.30 - When is Destinus aiming for the first commercial flight and where is that likely to be?

The development of these aircraft will take at least 10 years. We cannot predict that commercial exploitation depends on a number of things like which customers are ready to buy are the regulations and the certifications complete.

17.00 - What other sort of challenges are you facing:

There is no shortage of people that want to work on this amazing project. On the other hand, there is some healthy scepticism. We believe we can do it, but we have to show ourselves and we have to show the world – so there is that promise to fulfil. 

There's also the transition to hydrogen in aviation. In general, there is a big discussion about whether to pursue hydrogen exclusively or whether to rely on sustainable fuels, which may be oils, but zero carbon, this is something long-term that requires a strategic vision.

19.00 - Additional information:

We publish a lot of information on LinkedIn, a lot of videos, and a lot of images. We're trying to keep the public informed. We're not trying to keep any secrets. So join us. Even join us professionally.

Destinus are trying to align our technological roadmap with as many spin-offs to really create what we call the hydrogen valley. From green hydrogen production to combustion, to energy conversion and energy storage. 

20.00 – When is the next test flight?

The next test flight is planned for the spring of next year. That will be the 3rd prototype which will ultimately go supersonic with a liquid hydrogen afterburner.

This will be the first time in history as well that somebody flies a liquid hydrogen afterburner on an aircraft. It is also a hybrid aircraft with a combination of jet fuel and hydrogen.

 21.20 - Cost of tickets:

The cost can be reduced to become close to an expensive ticket today if hydrogen takes off and scales up large enough in the future. 

22.00 - Realistically, what can be achieved by Destinus in the next 10 years?

Fully hydrogen-powered aircraft that fly Mach 5 should be totally possible in that timeframe.

One way to put it is, in the next 10 y...

Exploring Hydrogen ep 15 - Shownotes

Intro:

In this episode we’re geeking out about Hydrogen trains with Troy Shorley, Technical Director and Daniel Koning, Principal Consultant and Subject Matter Expert from Deutsche Bahn.

Deutsche Bahn currently has the largest fleet of hydrogen trains in the world, so in this episode, we enjoyed welcoming two of their experts on low and zero-emission technologies to take a deeper dive. DB Engineering and Consulting is working in 84 nations worldwide, providing railway engineering, and railway consulting operations services.

Deutsche Bahn Engineering and Consulting is part of the Deutsche Bahn Group in Germany, the owner and operator of the Rail Network in Germany. Deutsche Bahn Group employs 320,000 people worldwide and DB Engineering & Consulting employs over 5,000 people.

Bios:

Troy is an Electrical Engineer with over 20 years of experience in electricity, transmission rail and engineering consultancy.

He has extensive experience in rail traction systems, low and zero-emission technologies, and examining the different technologies and their interdependence within rail traction systems. He is an expert in system design, earthing, and bonding system integration, as well as construction and commissioning supervision.

Daniel is a subject matter expert for railway systems and low and zero-emission technologies. He has 21 years of experience in the railway sector and over 10 years focused on innovative railway technologies and digitization. He has worked on major Australian and international projects across Europe, the USA, and Latin America as the Lead Subject Matter Expert, at Zero Emission Technologies.

03.10 - What is the opportunity/use-case for Hydrogen Trains?

Introducing hydrogen technology to trains would significantly contribute to decarbonising the transport sector. Hydrogen can bridge non-electrified gaps in our network where battery systems will be insufficient and where overhead continuing electrification can't be justified because the line frequency is not high enough.

05.00 – What percentage of the railway network in Germany is electric? And the decarbonisation opportunity for high-speed trains displacing short-haul flights

Currently, 65% of the network is electric and achieving 100% is not viable due to some of the lines being rural and certain areas that are not populated so the cost of electrification is too high.

Another opportunity is the decarbonisation of Australia, and one of the strategies Germany uses to reduce the overall decarbonization of transport is to replace short-haul flights with high-speed rail intercity express services.

7:00- Other options available (eg Battery /Biofuels/synfuels etc) to decarbonise the sector

The best option for highly frequented railway corridors is full electrification since the overall system efficiency is roughly 85 to 90% and you can't beat that. 

When you can't justify full electrification for shorter routes currently up to a hundred kilometres that are non-electrified, then battery electric traction is a good alternative. You can recover braking energy and also have a higher system efficiency when the stretches are getting a little bit longer. Battery technology currently can't cope with that and also when the power demand is a little bit bigger, especially for freight transport. Hydrogen is a very interesting alternative, the fuel system can provide the range and combined with a battery system it can cope with a high power demand. And as an intermediate solution, we can look at renewable carbon-based fuels. They're also a way to quickly decarbonize railway traffic, and they are potentially a drop-in solution for existing diesel fleets.

9:10 - FFI is looking at ammonia for their train line supporting one of their mines in WA. 

Hydrogen is interesting, but the range you can achieve is limited due to the volumetric energy, density, and ammonia is a very interesting hydrogen carrier. So by using ammonia, you can store more hydrogen than in the compressed form. FFI and Deutsche Bahn are currently testing a retrofitted diesel engine on a test lap in Germany. We mix hydrogen and ammonia to a combustive gas, inject it into the engine and try to optimize the combustion process.

10:35 - Some of the differences in how Hydrogen Trains are operated and maintained

The hydrogen fuel cell trains effectively have an electric drive system, so they're very similar to the existing electric locomotives so they're very low maintenance schedule and cost for the electric drive system. The difference comes in with the energy system. The need for battery replacements and hydrogen fuel that are replacements. 

12.- Safety and Standards around the maintenance of hydrogen vehicles

There is work to be done with aligning the standards to achieve the safety required so there's no detriment to the current railway systems. It is the same transition as centuries ago coming from coal as the main source of a rail vehicle then transiting to diesel. Everything thought diesel, this combustible liquid, is very dangerous and new procedures had to be developed. So now it's transiting from diesel that people are very unfamiliar with.

14.48 - Where Germany is up to and what's the plan from here

A few smaller fleets have been tested in commercial operation. The first commercial operation with a larger fleet just started in December. The trains are operated by DB and there are another few public tender processes in place currently to procure additional fleets for different rural networks. 

The main reason for that is that the German government is really pushing hard for the decarbonization of the transport sector so there's a net zero target of 2040 for DB. 27 units currently being put into commercial operation near Frankfurt.

17.45 - Other projects DB are working on around the world

Introduction to the guest, 

Russell James has over 19 years of experience in energy and is experienced in the delivery of small to large-scale energy and utility infrastructure projects. He has extensive knowledge of gas and energy markets, pricing, and regulations. Over the last four years, he has led or played a key role in all ATCO's hydrogen-related activities, including the development of the Clean Energy Innovation Hub, conceptualising and sourcing funding from the WA Government Renewable Hydrogen Fund for the Hydrogen Vehicle Refuelling station, and securing $28.7m from ARENA to develop the Clean Energy Innovation Park - a commercial scale renewable hydrogen production project. 

1.30 - Background of ATCO

ATCO stands for Alberta Trailer Company and began with modular trailers, which grew into acquiring Canadian utilities in the 1980s, including electricity generation, gas processing, storage, and transmission. They have just celebrated their 75th year in operation.

ATCO has diverse business operations, including modular structures, power stations, and a gas distribution network - in Australia, the network has 800,000 connection points and a focus on renewables and hydrogen/future fuels.

4 - Humble beginnings

ATCO now has over 6,200 employees and over $22 billion worth of assets. It has been operational in about a hundred countries and has 75,000 kilometres of electrical power lines and 65,000 kilometres of natural gas pipelines. However, despite the growth, it’s a very family-orientated business.

“We do what we say we're going to do, and that includes supporting those communities where we operate, and also supporting our employees in what they're doing.”

4.45 - Clean Energy Innovation Hub
The project is an opportunity to showcase applications for the technology and the use of hydrogen gas in commercial, industrial and residential settings. 

“Energy security as you can imagine is extremely important particularly with our control room operation at the site, we can't afford to have outages because we're responding to those 800,000 customers, 24 7, 365 days a year”

6.45 -

●     Training facility at the innovation hub, which is a registered training organisation where they train all operatives to construct, operate and maintain the network.

●     Hydrogen courses at the facility

●     Have around 100 kilowatts of electrical demand at any point in time, 300 kilowatts of solar onto the rooftop.

●     Store excess renewables. 

● 200-kilowatt electrolyzer to convert water and split that through a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer, into hydrogen gas and oxygen.

9.35 - Key learnings

- Supply Chain challenges: “procuring an electrolyzer was different at that point in time when we were buying a 200-kilowatt electrolyzer. You couldn't go down to Bunnings and buy one off the shelf!!!.”

- Different procurement practices.

- Learning also included the integration of the regulations and standards and bringing the technical regulator along the journey as well.

The next Stage in the project was gas blending:

“The next step in the project and one we can talk about a little bit further is a blending project, which takes it out from behind the meter. We're actually blending out into around 2,700 homes and businesses around the Jandakot area.

11.30 - What percentage was it blended into the network and what percentage do you think you can get to?

13.19 - Collaboration in California with Southern California (SoCal) Gas

“...the approach that we like to take at ATCO is a ‘crawl, walk, run’. We'd rather learn on these smaller jobs and start to build to scale. And that's what we're doing, we're still focused on the large-scale export projects, but also let's build at manageable and build skill and capability.

With that project we're able to assist SoCal Gas to replicate what we've got through the hub and the hybrid home, which is another part of our site at Jandakot.”

15 - Clean Energy Innovation Park

“These days we've got people knocking on the door wanting to procure hydrogen and use it to really get the industry going. We’ve utilised the skills and expertise that we've built on the hub to now get to a 10-megawatt scale. And the facility that we've designed, we now can replicate. 

17 - Cost of Hydrogen

“The main factors that we see with the cost per kilo; there are some capital elements to it, but the main driver is energy input. It's, it's a very high percentage - somewhere in the region of 60-70%+ of the makeup in the cost of hydrogen. And particularly in Australia at this point in time with some of the energy volatility, which creates a challenge for hydrogen production. We need to see those costs continue to come down”

18.45 - The collaboration with FFI on the refuelling stations. 

700Bar refueler, co-located at Jandakot Clean Energy Innovation Hub.

Electric vehicles definitely have a place as do fuel-cell electric vehicles – Hydrogen cars are also electric cars which people sometimes forget. The difference is how the power is getting delivered into that electric motor.”

23.40 - Range anxiety and refuelling stations

I think it is quite important that we take a jurisdictional approach and, a geographical approach to where these are located.

“On the East coast of Australia it's been really good to see the States combining and look at things like the hydrogen highway between, New South Wales and Victoria and Queensland and how that can integrate. That's a really important part of the nation coming together.”

25.45 - Where does Australia sit in comparison?
Australia has to move on quite quickly, and a coordinated national framework would be beneficial. This will allow people that are looking to invest in hydrogen to move forward. The challenge is who pays for it - and that's always the question. 

27.30 - What are the biggest challenges within your team at the moment? 

“We're a small team, but we're very agile and, and nimble and we've got some really strong skills and capability within the team. However we need to focus on projects that are going to start to move the dial and get to commerciality.”

This is an industry where collaboration is key. Each party has a role to play. There's enough to go around for everybody in order to achieve the goals of export into 2030, 2040 and beyond. So in this early stage, it is working together with like-minded companies and users. And that's not only domestically, but also internationally to start these projects moving - and recognize where we all can work together for the greater good.

It is an important step to build skill, capability, expertise, and knowledge here in Australia. And also, to increase the size of projects to get to export. We need to show that Australia has a real opportunity for hydrogen.”

34.30    - Collaboration with Suncor Energy in Canada

34 - Low Hanging-Fruit  - including Gas distribution networks and the transportation sector.

35  <...

Right time, the right technology, the right scale

This episode uncovers Frontier Energy's flagship project from advancements to challenges, offtake, community engagement and more. Tune in to find out for yourself how hydrogen can contribute to the decarbonisation of Australia and the world.

0.30 - Intro to Guest: Sam Lee Mohan, MD & CEO of Frontier Energy

Sam has 20 years of experience in the energy and utilities industry, including design, construction, strategic asset management, regulation, policy, commercial and innovation. Previous appointments included Global Head of Hydrogen for Xodus Group and Senior Manager for Innovation at ATCO.

1.30 - Intro to Frontier Energy

Frontier Energy is an ASX-listed, renewable energy company, based in WA. Its flagship project is developing a 114MW solar farm, tied to a 36MW (electrolyser) hydrogen production plant at Bristol Springs. Stage one will produce 4.4Mkg of hydrogen p.a., growing to 73Mkg p.a. It will also roll out a re-fuelling station in “the Perth CBD.” Construction begins at the end of this year. 

2.48 - Update on the stage of the project

The project is currently at an advanced stage. The location is one of the fundamental aspects as it is located 120 km south of Perth. It is connected to water and power infrastructure. 5km from major transport routes. The main focus at present is securing offtake. Commissioning is projected for the first half of 2025 and hydrogen production in the latter part of 2025.

4.05 - Deeper dive into the project:

Daytime power comes from the solar plant. Off-peak power from the grid, so utilisation is around 75% to achieve the best price/supply combination. The challenge is to develop the right production at the right scale at the right time. In time the 114MW could be scaled up to just over 1GW.

Challenge is deploying the right technology, at the right time, at the right scale.

6.19 - Having access to world-class infrastructure is fundamental to kick-starting this industry and having foundation projects the industry can anchor on.

6.45 - Resources:

Solar is the cheapest form of energy production at present. Excess Photovoltaic electricity can be sold into the grid, and then drawn back during off-peak periods. LGC (large generation certificates) credits gained from green energy production are retired against the purchase of electricity from the grid, of unknown (green/brown) origin and this creates a net zero footprint. The end result is that low-cost electricity is supplied to the WA grid. We are using the grid as a virtual battery.

9.34 - Access to clean water:

The plant is located within a kilometre of the Stirling Trunk Main pipeline, this is one of the most strategic assets across Western Australia. The water is sourced from the Southern Seawater desalination plant and the Southern dam, ensuring a reliable, low-cost supply; this allows a huge saving in desalination and bore (drilling) costs. Future supply has also been secured for the stage one requirements, 750k/l per day actually being four times the need, to 1,250k/l per day for stage 2. So projected growth is catered for and the demands from yet unknown tertiary growth are also covered.  

11.30 - Gas:

The Dampier - Bunbury pipeline currently transfers offshore natural gas in North Western WA down to the demand areas of Perth & surrounds. It also supplies the huge power needs (with resultant emissions) of the Alcoa smelting plant, downstream from Bristol Springs. The pipeline already has the technical capacity to take in hydrogen from the Frontier Energy plant, without any disruption to its own supply or customers. Statutory changes that will legalise the process are already in advanced stages.     

"The political environment is set in order to enable Hydrogen to be projected into the pipeline both from a legal perspective as well a technical perspective."

13.25 - Workforce:

The town of Collie (population 8k) is 57 kilometres from the plant. The power station is due to close there and Frontier Energy will be able to offer workers construction jobs (initially) and ongoing jobs at its plant. Other towns are similar distances away and Perth is only a 70-minute drive.

Manufacturing hydrogen commercially is difficult because one has to match supply and demand throughout. It’s essential to assist and work with early adopters and the government to ensure that the recipients are not penalised for making staged switches to Hydrogen consumption. 

17.10 - Costs:

Other green hydrogen producers are quoting potential production costs of over $6 per kilo of hydrogen, compared to Frontier’s of around $2.80 per kg. Income from the exported (to the grid) electricity is used to offset some of the operating costs through the reserved capacity markets. Low-cost electricity supplies the hydrogen plant. This allows a daytime energy input cost that is actually negative. (-$15 a MWh).  Night-time electricity drawdowns cost around $50 - $60 per MWh. The net cost of power for the electrolyser is around $35 per MWh. The solar plant cost $166m and the hydrogen plant $72m. After the CAPEX is paid off, the hydrogen production cost falls to $1.50 per kilo, a rate that is similar to the natural gas equivalent. 

With scaling up to 1GW, the operating costs fall further to around $1.30/.20 per kilo. This is fundamental as reduced costs for early users will accelerate uptake and broaden the demand base. 

27.02 - Community engagement:

Positive feedback as they see possibilities for high-paid, skilled jobs in the community, encouraging retention of youth etc. The project has “State Significant” status with the WA government, with fortnightly meetings. 300 jobs at the construction stage, and 50 in operations. Construction is likely to be ongoing with Stage 2, etc. for the next 5 - 10 years. The hydrogen side is likely to require workers transitioning from electrical etc to the less familiar, new technology, with regulatory, compliance approvals, and engineering challenges. The hydrogen economy is a race, and we are competing with incentivised and supported industries in countries, such as the US and UK. We are well supported by our governments, but project-by-project assistance will be required, or our most skilled people may be tempted abroad. 

25.50 - Other learnings to date:

Investors are interested, but they need to understand the appropriate risks and incentives. A conducive political environment, and favourable emissions targets from the government making access easily available to new gas and electricity infrastructure, at the time of construction, will make it easier and cheaper for other potential hydrogen producers and this is to be encouraged. A proposed government incentive is being progressed that will require 80% of its 2050 emissions targets to be achieved by 2030. This will incentivise early-stage hydrogen developments.

29.40 - Challenges:

"How advanced are you in the maturity of the hydrogen industry?"

Hydrogen suppliers need to marry up their supply with nasce...