{"id":27352,"date":"2019-01-25T11:14:05","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T00:44:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/?p=27352"},"modified":"2024-05-15T14:22:04","modified_gmt":"2024-05-15T04:52:04","slug":"labor-hydrogen-plan-analysis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solarquotes.com.au\/blog\/labor-hydrogen-plan-analysis\/","title":{"rendered":"Labor’s Hydrogen Plan Is A Lead Zeppelin"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Labor

Why Australia Is Unlikely To Ever Export Large Quantities Of Hydrogen<\/p><\/div>\n

As Michael reported this week<\/a>, Labor has announced in a media release<\/a> that, if elected, they will spend $3 million building a “National Hydrogen Innovation Hub” in Gladstone and make over $1 billion available in loans for to develop hydrogen production.\u00a0 Labor also say they will remove regulatory barriers and make research into hydrogen production, storage, and transport a priority .<\/p>\n

I think this is a pity because the projections for massive hydrogen exports Labor mentions here:<\/p>\n

\"hydrogen<\/p>\n

Are never going to happen.<\/p>\n

A Billion Dollar Announcement With $3 Million In Funding<\/h2>\n

Before I explain why I think — in my not at all humble opinion —\u00a0 that Australia is never likely to export large amounts of hydrogen, I’d first like to point out that despite Labor boasting:<\/p>\n

\"Labor<\/p>\n

The actual amount of taxpayer’s money they are throwing out there is only $3 million to be spent in Gladstone.\u00a0 The rest consists of over $1 billion in financing and promises to change research priorities and improve regulations.\u00a0 The loans shouldn’t lose the government money as they will only be made if they’re sure they’ll get it back plus interest.\u00a0 But they have the drawback that it’s over $1 billion that won’t be financing other things that could be more valuable to Australia.\u00a0 I find Labor’s promise to make hydrogen research a priority disturbing because there is no mention of additional funding.\u00a0 This means any new focus on hydrogen research will come at the cost of less research elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Because the $3 million Labor will actually provide is such a tiny amount compared to the billion dollar announcement, it makes me wonder if this is just all part of a con to make Japan think we’re all on board the hydrogen train together to dupe them into investing hydrogen development money in Australia.\u00a0 The problem with this is, conning your friends1<\/a><\/sup> is not nice.\u00a0 Also, I have no confidence our leaders are capable of remembering the most important part of a con job — don’t be the sucker.<\/p>\n

Hydrogen Gas Is Not Laughing Gas<\/h2>\n

Labor included the following text in their press release:<\/p>\n

\"Hydrogen<\/p>\n

So some countries’ politicians said they are transitioning to hydrogen and Labor believed them?\u00a0 You’d think a politician would be the last person to trust another politician, wouldn’t you?\u00a0 If we look at it the other way around we should assume Japan and South Korea believe what our government says and thinks we’re going to build a dozen new coal power stations.<\/p>\n

I am being facetious here.\u00a0 To be fair, Japan and South Korea have both ponied up piles of money for hydrogen.\u00a0 South Korea is spending $3.2 billion<\/a> over 5 years on hydrogen car infrastructure and Japan spends around $2 billion a year on hydrogen research.\u00a0 But to put that in perspective, Japan currently spends about $16 billion a year on nuclear power research.\u00a0 This is despite the fact they had literal hydrogen explosions occurring inside nuclear reactor buildings<\/a> in 2011.<\/p>\n

I presume their motivation is they want to move away from oil but think they need a substitute and have latched onto hydrogen.\u00a0 Their splashing of cash will help hydrogen vehicle sales, but I think they will be dwarfed by sales of battery electric vehicles.\u00a0 Once Toyota<\/a> starts producing electric cars in large numbers<\/a> for sale in Japan it will probably be game over for hydrogen cars there.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n

3 Reasons Why Hydrogen Demand Won’t Be Huge<\/h2>\n

Hydrogen may become an important fuel for aviation and shipping.\u00a0 It’s also used in many industrial processes.3<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 So there definitely could be a demand for hydrogen produced from renewable energy and not natural gas which is used for 96% of the world’s current hydrogen production.\u00a0 But I’m certain predictions for a massive demand for hydrogen imports from Australia are not going to pan out because:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Hydrogen won’t dominate road transport because battery electric vehicles<\/a> have it beat on both cost and energy efficiency.<\/li>\n
  2. Energy losses from the production, liquefaction, transport, and electricity generation on top of other costs are likely to make it too expensive for any country to generate a large part of its electricity from imported hydrogen.<\/li>\n
  3. Rather than importing hydrogen it could be cheaper to use natural gas and then pay to have the CO2 that is released removed from the atmosphere and sequestered.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Battery Electric Vehicles Outclass Hydrogen Vehicles<\/h2>\n

    A modern hydrogen car is an electric vehicle but instead of batteries it is powered by a fuel cell that is fed hydrogen from a tank.\u00a0 The main disadvantages of hydrogen electric cars over battery ones are:<\/p>\n