Australian green hydrogen project secures first commercial offtaker

From pv magazine Australia

Hydrogen Park South Australia (HyP SA) has not even finished commissioning a 1.25 MW electrolyzer capable of producing 480 kilograms of green hydrogen per day, but the project has already signed its first offtake agreement for excess production with BOC, a supplier of compressed and bulk gases.

BOC, a subsidiary of Linde, will install a compressor at HyP SA’s Tonsley Innovation District site to compress green hydrogen for transport by tube trailers to industrial customers in South Australia and ultimately to a new group of customers in Western Australia, the home of natural gas.

“This is an Australian-first application of tube trailers to transport renewable hydrogen to industry,” said South Australian Minister for Energy and Mining Dan van Holst Pellekaan.

Hyp SA is an AUD 11.4 million (US8.15 million) pilot project developed by Australian Gas Networks, with a grant from the South Australian Government’s Renewable Technology Fund. When fully commissioned at the end of 2020, the project will begin supplying 5% renewable hydrogen into the natural gas network.

AGIG’s general manager of people and strategy, Craig de Laine, said the company periodically talks to its customers about their customer experience, their preferences and expectations. Around 87% have said that they expect AGIG to begin decarbonizing their gas supplies.

Partly as a result of this feedback, AGIG is leading the Australian Hydrogen Centre Initiative, in partnership with the South Australian and Victorian Governments and other industry players. With Australian Renewable Energy Agency funding, it is developing the technical feasibility plans and pilots it needs in order to safely transition to 100% hydrogen (or hydrogen plus biogas) in its network by 2050.

For the full story, please visit our pv magazine Australia website.