Yet another ‘green hydrogen’ project has bombed: less Ivy Mike and more of a soggy green squib. All it has blown up is yet another pile of taxpayer money.
Australia’s largest green hydrogen project has been terminated, with the collapse of the international consortium developing the $12.5bn plant and pipeline in Gladstone […]
An estimated $117m in federal, state and private sector funding had been spent on a feasibility study to inform a final investment decision later this year on the first stage of the project.
I could have told them it was a waste of time for five bucks and a free coffee.
For the uninitiated, ‘green hydrogen’ is hydrogen produced by using massive amounts of electricity to electrolyse water, splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen. But the electricity has to come from ‘renewable’ sources, for it to be ‘green’.
That’s right: taking the already ruinously expensive and unreliable ‘renewable’ electricity and diverting it to making even-more-expensive hydrogen.
Where could it possibly go wrong?
It was reported earlier this year that the 2019 initial $12.5bn estimated cost of the project’s construction had blown out to $14.75bn by 2022, and there was further expected blow-outs with the worldwide hike in input costs.
The CQ-H2 project was initially touted as being able to produce up to 200 tonnes of liquefied hydrogen by 2028, and four times that by 2031. It involved the already completed construction of a solar farm to fuel the plant, a pipeline and liquefaction facility to ready the hydrogen for export.
Then reality struck.
Queensland’s state-owned Stanwell Corporation, the lead developer of the Gladstone site, has confirmed to the Australian it has ended all involvement in the project, which was proposed and promoted by former Labor premiers Annastacia Palaszczuk and Steven Miles.
When even governments aren’t willing to waste other people’s money on something, you know it’s a white elephant. But it isn’t just Queensland government bailing: private companies are backing out as fast as they can.
There was mounting concern within the LNP government about the reliance on taxpayer funding to progress the project and if the commercially untested scale-up of the technology was viable. At the time, several of the overseas-based consortium partners shared the concerns about rising costs of the project.
The Japanese utility Kansai Electric Power Company, which was to be one of Gladstone’s anchor customers, pulled out of the consortium in November […]
The consortium also includes ammonia producer Incitec Pivot Limited, Japanese trading house Marubeni, Singaporean company Keppel […]
Another of the Japanese consortium members, Iwatani Corporation, withdrew from the project and closed its Queensland offices in March, without making a public announcement.
It’s just another day in the Albanese government’s ‘Net Zero’ Clown World.
The termination of the Gladstone project follows the collapse of a string of major green hydrogen proposals across Australia.
In February, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas axed plans for a $596m hydrogen plant. It was soon followed by global commodities company Trafigura, which owns the Nyrstar lead smelter in Port Pirie, axing a $750m proposed green hydrogen plant that was set to produce 100 tonnes a year.
In March, the Australian reported that an estimated 99 per cent of the announced capacity of proposed green hydrogen projects has not progressed beyond the concept or approval stages.
Wherever there’s a ‘green’ cliff to jump off, though, we can always rely on Boofhead Bowen to take a flying leap, screaming, ‘Wait for me!’
Federal Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Monday blasted the state government for refusing to invest any further in the now-struggling project, which was touted as being able to produce up to 800 tonnes of liquefied hydrogen by 2031.
Sure, and wind and solar are touted as being cheap and reliable by these loons.
