Australian government's hydrogen funding round oversubscribed

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency, or ARENA, has been inundated with requests for funding for renewable hydrogen projects, which it now has to sift through to identify two or more flagship projects.

ARENA opened up a A$70 million ($48.7 million) round of funding in April, and has received 36 requests for projects valued at more than A$3 billion in total and almost 500 MW in size, the Australian government unit said.

ARENA CEO Darren Miller said the volume of interest showed that "we're beginning to see companies embrace making hydrogen through renewable means."

The agency launched the funding round in a bid to support two or more large scale renewable hydrogen projects, with electrolyzers of a minimum 5 MW capacity and with a preference for 10 MW or larger.

Funding requests came from all Australian states and territories, with projects ranging from 5 MW to 80 MW, covering a wide range of end-user applications.

ARENA said it would draw up a shortlist of projects with a view to awarding the funding by the end of this year.

The agency till date has committed more than A$55 million in funding for renewable hydrogen, including $22.1 million towards R&D projects.

Separately, renewable energy company Austrom Hydrogen said on June 10 that it had secured land near Gladstone in Queensland for its export-focused Pacific Solar Hydrogen project.

The company is looking for partners to help develop its solar-battery project which could host a 3.6 GW solar-powered hydrogen facility.