AUSTRALIA'S energy future has become a central theme of the federal election campaign, with the Coalition promoting its grant-based thrust into the new world of hydrogen power, and Labor promising, more or less, to outdo whatever the conservatives can muster.
This week, Energy Minister Angus Taylor announced further progress on a push to position the Port of Newcastle as a "hydrogen hub".
Although the private sector, including the canny and successful Macquarie Group are on board with the Newcastle plan, it is only one of seven such hubs identified by Canberra. It would surprise if all were to succeed, although Newcastle has an undeniably strong industrial history and surplus land in a world-class deep-water port as obvious natural advantages.
If we take another step back and view things globally, we see that governments around the world are engaged in something of a grant-funding arms race to gain "first mover" status in the epoch-making energy shift from fossil fuels to renewables.
This drive, orchestrated by the IPCC and the pledges extracted by the United Nations in the name of combating climate change, is being funded by the taxpayer.
There is nothing necessarily wrong with the process, as such, but politicians everywhere can be accused of promising things that are simply not in their purview to deliver.
This is especially the case with supposedly concrete claims of job creation, when we are dealing with an industry that is in its nascent stages, at the very best.
Some of those promising revolutionary benefits seem to have little understanding of the laws of physics. At the risk of repetition, one reason why hydrogen has not been developed as a mass fuel before now is because it takes more energy to create hydrogen than the hydrogen itself produces.
HYDROGEN HOPES:
- Sept 2020: NSW government report identifies Newcastle's hydrogen potential
- Nov 2021: Morrison impressed with Newcastle's hydrogen hopes
- March 2022: Matt Kean on hydrogen in Hunter and Illawarra
Now, however, the imperative of climate change and the promise of fuel-free renewable electricity has tilted the scales in hydrogen's favour.
Various practical problems need to be solved along the road to a hydrogen transition, but the need to beat these difficulties is a bonanza for a new generation of bright and highly educated young Australian researchers.
Our university, its engineering expertise built in conjunction with a steel-era BHP, is another asset to stand this region in good stead. The race is well and truly on.
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