The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced the opening of the $70 million Renewable Hydrogen Deployment Funding Round aimed at accelerating the development of renewable hydrogen in Australia.
According to ARENA’s statement, the funding round aims to support ‘two or more large scale renewable hydrogen projects, with electrolysers of a minimum of 5 MW capacity, with a preference for 10 MW or larger’.
These projects, which must be powered by renewable electricity, either directly or through power purchase agreements or large scale generation certificates, will be expected to be among the largest electrolysers in the world.
ARENA CEO Darren Miller said expressions of interest are open until Tuesday 26 May, with shortlisted projects to be invited to submit full applications later in 2020.
“With this significant investment we expect to take the sector to the next level. We’ve supported a range of feasibility studies and pilot projects over the past two years, but now we need to start the journey of producing hydrogen at scale,” Mr Miller added.
“To take advantage of hydrogen’s potential, we need to increase the scale and reduce the costs of electrolyser installations in Australia.
“Through this round, ARENA aims to share knowledge on technical and commercial parameters for commercial-scale renewable hydrogen production for domestic and international markets.”
Successfull applicants are expected to receive the funding by the end of the year.
