I know it’s wrong to take pleasure in the misfortunes of others, but when it’s Climate Cult troughers, I’m willing to make an exception. After all, these cronies have been trousering our taxes at the same time as they’re crippling our nation with their snake-oil garbage.
I may never have wished a business to fail, but when yet another green scam goes tits-up, you can bet I’m smirking as I read the obituary.
A major $750m green hydrogen plant has been axed in South Australia, a fresh setback for the fledgling industry just days after Anthony Albanese pledged the clean-energy source would help underpin its Future Made in Australia plan.
Global commodities company Trafigura, which owns the Nyrstar lead smelter at Port Pirie, had hoped to build the world’s largest hydrogen electrolyser facility as part of an ambitious scheme that included funding from the state government.
When it comes to green scams, they don’t come much scammier than so-called ‘green hydrogen’. ‘Green’ hydrogen is created by electrolysing water – that is, splitting off the hydrogen in H₂O. The hydrogen is then used as an energy source. The principle is sound enough, except for one problem: it uses an awful lot of energy. Much more, relatively, than it takes to mine coal or oil. To be ‘green’, as well, the energy must come from so-called ‘renewable’ sources.
All that adds up to a prohibitively expensive niche fuel.
Sources said the prohibitive cost of constructing the green hydrogen plant, and stunted interest from buyers for the green product, both played into the decision to walk away from the project.
There’s always sucker in government with too much of other people’s money to spend on even the wildest boondoggle.
The Albanese government has an $8bn war chest aimed at creating incentives for the nascent commodity, and pledged more than $800m in production incentives last week to kickstart the 1500MW Murchison green hydrogen project in Western Australia.
The plant will use solar- and wind-powered hydrogen and convert it to green ammonia for export.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen said the WA deal pointed to Australia’s ambition to become a renewable energy superpower while also boosting its Future Made in Australia policy, with 3600 workers to be employed in construction.
Rule of thumb: if Boofhead is behind it, it’s a complete waste of money and resources. Sure enough, this is just the latest ‘green hydrogen’ pipe dream to come a gutser.
The Australian reported earlier in March the nation’s green hydrogen industry had failed to fire, with 99 per cent of a $100bn supply pipeline failing to progress beyond the concept stage, punching a hole in [Anthony Albanese’s] aim to develop a major export industry by 2030 and meet net-zero goals […]
Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue abandoned ambitious green hydrogen targets in July 2024. More recently, the newly elected Queensland LNP government last month scrapped the Central Queensland Hydrogen Project by rejecting a $1bn funding request from state-owned generator Stanwell Corporation.
Enter Minister Pollyanna.
However, Mr Bowen said last week that investment so far was largely consistent with its national hydrogen plan, while conceding the “odd setback” and some delays were inevitable as the sector attempts to build momentum.
As part of its flagship Future Made in Australia plan, the government in 2024 provided a budget allocation of $6.7bn to provide a $2 incentive for every kilogram of green hydrogen produced from 2027-28. It also committed $2bn for new projects under the Hydrogen Headstart program.
So that’s nearly $10 billion of our taxes being thrown at the biggest Climate Cult scam since they convinced governments to spend billions on desalination plants that now cost millions of dollars per year to sit idle. Not to mention a considerable chunk of our increasingly scarce, unreliable and unaffordable electricity supply.
Consultancy EnergyQuest said it may make more sense to use Australia’s huge renewable generation capacity for the power grid rather than green hydrogen.
“A key drawback of the existing green hydrogen production process is that a considerable portion of the renewable energy used to produce the hydrogen is lost in the production process,” EnergyQuest said.
“It takes around 45 kilowatt hours to produce one kilogram of green hydrogen, but that one kilogram can only be used to generate 30kWh of electricity, and production of green ammonia involves a further 13-25 per cent energy loss.”
Oh, don’t run the numbers, whatever you do. Cold, hard facts only make the Climate Cult angry. Because running the numbers immediately exposes their lying hucksterism for what it is.
EnergyQuest estimates the electricity required to generate 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen – the federal government’s target by 2050 – requires more than double Australia’s total annual electricity generation.
If only bullshit from politicians and activists was an energy source, our problems would all be over.
