Four projects will receive up to AUD 50 million (USD 35.4m/EUR 32.5m) and EUR 40 million (USD 43.6m) under the German-Australian Hydrogen Innovation and Technology Incubator intuitive, known as HyGATE, it was announced on Friday.
The funding round, with AUD 50 million and EUR 50 million committed by Australia and Germany, respectively, opened in March last year in the wake of an agreement between the two countries to strengthen bilateral cooperation on the development of hydrogen technology.
Do you know we have a daily hydrogen newsletter? Subscribe here for free!
On Friday, in addition to announcing the successful HyGATE projects, Australia’s Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen and Germany’s Minister for Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger also released a joint summary report on the German-Australian Hydrogen Feasibility Study (HySupply) showing that a green hydrogen supply chain between Australia and Germany “is both feasible and highly desirable,” according to the an announcement by Chris Bowen.
The HyGATE initiative is managed by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) on the Australian side and Projekttraeger Juelich (PtJ) on the German side.
The four projects awarded conditional offers of funding are in the table below as provided by ARENA:
| Company (Australian lead applicant) |
Company (German lead applicant) |
Project Name |
ARENA Funding (AUD) |
BMBF Funding (EUR) |
| ATCO Australia |
Fraunhofer IST |
ScaleH2 |
0.8m |
4.7m |
| Hysata |
Fraunhofer IPT |
High-efficiency ‘Capillary-fed’ Electrolyser Pilot Project |
8.98m |
5.9m |
| Edify Energy |
Siemens Energy Global GmbH |
Edify Green Hydrogen Project |
20.74m |
16.4m |
| Vast Solar |
Fichtner GmbH |
Solar Methanol |
19.48m |
13.2m |
The Green Hydrogen Project (EGH2) of Australian solar and battery storage developer Edify Energy will see the deployment of a 17.5-MW Siemens Energy electrolyser with a 21-MW integrated solar and battery energy storage system. It will produce green hydrogen for local use in northern Queensland and represents the first stage of a proposed 1-GW green hydrogen plant that will export hydrogen through the Port of Townsville.
The Solar Methanol project, which is led in Australia by Vast Solar, a specialist in concentrated solar power (CSP), will develop a methanol production plant using renewable energy. It will include a 10-MW electrolyser producing green hydrogen for solar methanol production. The project aims to supply fuel to the shipping and aviation industries.
The Hysata project will support the company’s electrolyser technology which operates at higher efficiency than incumbent technologies and also offers a simple approach to mass manufacturing.
The ScaleH2 project will carry out a feasibility study into deploying a 1-GW electrolyser and 800 ktpa ammonia facility in the Illawarra region in New South Wales.
(AUD 1 = USD 0.708/EUR 0.650)
(EUR 1 = USD 1.090)
Image by Edify Energy (edifyenergy.com)
