Advocates say awareness of ‘green hydrogen’ is growing. 

Green hydrogen is being fiercely promoted by some as the clean fuel of the future with funding growing for green hydrogen trials around the world. 

‘Green hydrogen’ refers to hydrogen fuel - which is obtained by applying electricity to H2O - that is created using renewable energy. 

Australian Hydrogen Council chief Fiona Simon says hydrogen is finally being talked about seriously.

“Hydrogen's time has come because we're moving to global decarbonisation,” she said.

One of the strongest signs of growth in Australia comes from energy giant Woodside, which spent almost a fifth of its “new opportunities” budget on hydrogen in 2020.

“We're seeing increasing customer demand for hydrogen and that's great for us, that's great as an energy provider but it's great for the world as well as we move to a lower carbon future,” says Woodside's Executive Vice President of Sustainability Shaun Gregory.

“Forty years ago, we didn't expect to transport natural gas in a liquid form either and we did.

“I think we'll see the same with hydrogen.”

Federal Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor says “Australia recognises that hydrogen is one of the important technologies where Australia has a competitive advantage”. 

“We developed a national hydrogen strategy several years ago through the excellent work of Alan Finkel and that was path breaking work, not just for Australia but for the world.”