ACT electricity provider ActewAGL will reveal its hydrogen price for the territory on April 1 after its Fyshwick refuelling centre was officially certified clean and green on Friday, 10 months after opening.
The zero-emissions certification of the Canberra hydrogen dispensing station by an independent carbon accounting firm was the first such tick of approval in Australia.
International renewables energy company Neoen provides the ACT's power to generate "green" hydrogen.
Other generation methods elsewhere involve gas, for so-called blue hydrogen, and coal to produce brown hydrogen.
The super-chilled hydrogen which comes out of the Fyshwick pump at an astonishing 700 bar of atmospheric pressure and into the tank of the Hyundai Nexo, feeds the vehicle's onboard fuel cell, which converts it into electricity. The only tailpipe product is water.
Canberra has the largest fleet of hydrogen fuel cell cars in the country, with 20 Hyundai Nexo SUVs attached to the ACT government fleet, one leased to Woodside Energy, and another delivered this week to the Korean ambassador, Jeong-sik Kang.
All the cars operate under a lease agreement and use a swipe card to access the Fyshwick dispensing bowser.
Hydrogen, unlike petrol or diesel, is dispensed by weight, not by volume but there is no price on the Fyshwick bowser for one kilogram of hydrogen.
In Europe, hydrogen costs about 9.9 Euros per kilogram - about A$16.
How the fuel price is structured here, together with other key factors such as more widespread refuelling stations, will determine how quickly hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can become a competitive next-generation transport energy alternative to battery-electric vehicles.
The Nexo has three carbon fibre fuel tanks of equal size mounted under the boot floor and the rear seat, which hold a total of 6.33kg of hydrogen for a driving range of around 660 kilometres. But the huge advantage offered by hydrogen is its fast refuelling time - just three to five minutes - compared with recharging the battery of an electric vehicle.
ActewAGL boss John Knox explained the vehicles' running costs were built into the lease but said the company was keen to develop a price per kilogram so there was a better understanding of how a hydrogen fuel cell car compared with a petrol or diesel vehicle.
The Omicron wave of the pandemic sent most Canberra public servants back to working from home last year, which dramatically reduced ACT government's usage of the fuel cell fleet cars. The knock-on effect of this is that the Fyshwick station has dispensed far less hydrogen than had been expected.
Hydrogen is seen as having the greatest potential with truck and bus fleets, provided there is sufficient investment in refuelling stations. Germany has 71 hydrogen stations and 17 under construction.
