In the annals of wasted public investment, few attempts to build an industry can compete with the abject failure of hydrogen.
$60 billion in incentives are available for hydrogen research and production, most of it sitting on the shelf, unused.
Hydrogen was only ever going to be a niche industrial gas for decarbonising such things as steel. But it has proven to be so expensive that not even that can get much traction.
As well, in the example of steel, China appears only interested in recarbonising its steel mill fleet, meaning nobody using hydrogen can compete.
But a good Labor government never lets a chance to waste taxpayers’ funds go to waste, and a new boondoggle is underway.
Australia should not put all of its renewable energy investments into just a few baskets, a group warns, as it will not address the nation’s ongoing reliance on gas.
More than 50 organisations, from energy retailers to manufacturers, issued an open letter to the federal energy minister on Thursday, calling on the government to extend financial support to renewable gas projects.
The energy source, also known as biomethane, could reduce both emissions and prices, they say, while establishing a new renewable energy sector.
The call comes after the government listed biomethane as an emissions-reducing fuel in its Net Zero Report and after a study by Blunomy found Australia could produce significant amounts of the gas using existing materials.
…The open letter to Energy Minister Chris Bowen calls for the government to broaden the eligibility of its Hydrogen Headstart and Hydrogen Production Tax Incentive schemes to include biomethane projects.
…A recent study into biomethane by Blunomy found Australia had enough material to create about 400 petajoules of the gas each year, priced between $10 and $27 per gigajoule.
That’s a rather large price range! A recent study by Jemena into the cost of industrial-scale farts threw up a similarly stupid outcome, only worse.
Here’s roughly what the range looks like for you.
It’s the difference between modest gain and catastrophic bust. Doubtless, this is going to be very appealing to Chris Bowen.
Two points come to mind:
- Give us $%$&@ East Coast gas reservation for %^&@# sake so that we can drop the local gas price and stabilise the energy transition.
- Give us back the carbon price so that we can end this picking winners disaster that Labor loves.
Farts indeed.
