The Victorian government has given $10m for a hydrogen hub in Melbourne’s south-east that will test and improve hydrogen technologies.
The Victorian government has given $10m for a hub in Melbourne’s south-east that will test and improve hydrogen technologies.
The hub will be based at Swinburne University of Technology and study both clean energy vehicles and hydrogen storage.
The government says about 300 jobs will be created and construction is expected to take about 18 months after it commences in 2022.
Swinburne will partner with the CSIRO to establish it.
“This hub will help give Victorians the skills and experience we need to unlock the hydrogen industry – driving down emissions while creating green jobs in a growing industry,” Victoria’s energy minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, said on Saturday.
The CSIRO said that as part of the arrangement it would get $1m to help develop a refuelling station for hydrogen vehicles.
“As Australia considers energy alternatives, we know hydrogen is clean and will be cost-competitive, but a major barrier to it becoming a fuel source for cars and trucks is how to refuel, and the lack of refuelling infrastructure,” the CSIRO’s executive director, Nigel Warren, said.
“The refueller is a significant step towards removing that barrier.”
Swinburne university’s vice chancellor, Pascale Quester, thanked the government and said the hydrogen hub would demonstrate the ways in which technology can “create a better world”.
A sister site will also be built in Stuttgart, Germany.
The Victorian government is also expected to release a hydrogen industry development plan in the coming weeks.
Originally published at The Guardian