The Federal Government is funding four collaborative hydrogen projects run in partnership between Australia and Germany. 

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced conditional funding of up to AU$50 million and €40 million has been awarded by Australia and Germany across four projects as part of the German-Australian Hydrogen Innovation and Technology Incubator (known as HyGATE).

ARENA, on behalf of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water (DCCEEW), has teamed up with Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), through Project Management Jülich (PtJ), to administer HyGATE.

Australia and Germany committed funding up to AU$50 million and €50 million, respectively, to the HyGATE initiative which opened in March 2022. 

The objective of HyGATE is to strengthen Australian-German cooperation on reducing the cost of producing hydrogen from renewable sources and to stimulate the innovation process in both countries.

The Australia-Germany Hydrogen Accord, announced in June 2021, builds on the respective strengths of the two countries. 

Australia has the potential to be a world leader in the production and export of clean hydrogen and Germany holds expertise in hydrogen technology and is planning to import significant quantities of hydrogen in the future.

ARENA CEO Darren Miller said the HyGATE Initiative was a great next step in helping to commercialise renewable hydrogen.

“We’re excited to be able to announce these four hydrogen projects that demonstrate the benefit of global collaboration to achieve a new export industry in renewable hydrogen and push us further towards the goal of net zero emissions,” he said.

“HyGATE highlights our strong relationship with Germany. Through our joint support we will bring together Australian innovation and state-of-the-art German renewable hydrogen technology for the benefit of both countries,” Mr Miller said.