Hydrogen industry development

Hydrogen is a clean, renewable fuel that can be used in transport, power supply and a range of industrial processes. It’s already key for a range of industries that provide vital inputs into a range of manufacturing processes and our mining and agricultural sectors.

Hydrogen can be produced from a variety of sources including renewables such as solar, wind and biomass.

We aim to put Queensland at the forefront of renewable hydrogen production in Australia by 2030.

Recent achievements

Queensland’s first publicly accessible hydrogen refueller opened at the BP Truckstop, Lytton.
Fortescue officially opened the Gladstone electrolyser manufacturing facility

Queensland Hydrogen Industry Strategy

We’re supporting the development of a sustainable hydrogen industry in Queensland. To help do this, we’ve released the Queensland Hydrogen Industry Strategy 2019-2024 ( 3.4 MB).

The strategy focuses on:

supporting innovation
facilitating private sector investment
ensuring an effective policy framework
building community awareness and confidence
facilitating skills development for new technology.

Queensland Hydrogen Industry Development Fund

As part of the strategy, we established the Hydrogen Industry Development Fund to drive investment and accelerate hydrogen projects in Queensland.

By helping to fast-track hydrogen projects, the fund will create more jobs in more industries and boost regional economies.

Hydrogen development for planning scheme drafting

Hydrogen developments - Guidance for local government in plan drafting ( 1.3 MB) to help ensure local planning schemes are drafted to appropriately support a sustainable hydrogen industry in Queensland has been prepared.

Local governments will play an important role in supporting the growth of the hydrogen industry in Queensland as well as the National Hydrogen Strategy.

Queensland Hydrogen Projects

This interactive map provides information about renewable hydrogen projects in Queensland. A range of other projects are still confidential, and the mapper will be regularly updated as projects become public.

Queensland Hydrogen Investor Toolkit

As part of the strategy, the government committed to ‘Prepare an investor toolkit to assist private sector proponents with information on developing projects in Queensland’. The Queensland Hydrogen Investor Toolkit ( 2.6 MB) has been prepared to assist investors with project planning for hydrogen developments in Queensland. The toolkit includes useful contacts to assist with your project and will be regularly updated as new information is gathered from practical experience with facilitating renewable hydrogen projects in Queensland.

Gladstone and Townsville Hydrogen Opportunities Study

As part of strategic planning to facilitate the development of the renewable hydrogen industry in Queensland, the Gladstone and Townsville Hydrogen Opportunities study was commissioned in late 2019. The study provides information on land, infrastructure and services requirements for large-scale facilities for the production of hydrogen and export as liquefied hydrogen, ammonia or methylcyclohexane.

The objective of the study was to provide information to assist with integrated land use and ports planning and infrastructure and services corridor planning including the potential for common user infrastructure.

Information through this process, particularly the conceptual hydrogen production facility dimensions and infrastructure and services requirements is transferrable to other ports in Queensland.

The locations (Gladstone and Townsville) and the three hydrogen transport types (liquefied hydrogen, ammonia or methylcyclohexane) were selected based on the known focus of private sector investment at the time the report was commissioned.

The overall report comprises three parts:

Part 1: Literature review and preparation of conceptual hydrogen facility
Part 2: Market assessment, stakeholder engagement and refinement of conceptual hydrogen facility
Part 3: Multi-criteria assessment for the ports (land suitability assessment)

Hydrogen release simulation modelling

Norwegian based safety and risk specialists Gexcon were commissioned to do preliminary simulation modelling of large-scale releases of hydrogen from pipelines and tanks. The technical report provides preliminary information on a range of release scenarios and will be used to assist strategic planning for future growth of the hydrogen industry and to assist with detailed safety and risk assessments. The technical report and presentation is available by request from hcfplanning@oir.qld.gov.au

Reports

In October 2024 the Australian Government released the updated National Hydrogen Strategy
In October 2022 the Queensland Government released the Enabling Queensland’s Hydrogen production and export opportunities report creating a reference guide for industry
On 20 July 2022 the Queensland Government released the 2022-2032 Queensland Hydrogen Industry Workforce Development Roadmap
On 26 May 2021 the Clean Energy Finance Corporation released the Australian Hydrogen Market Study
On 24 September 2019, Geoscience Australia released the report Prospective hydrogen production regions of Australia
Hydrogen for Australia's Future ( 1.1 MB) - COAG Energy Council briefing paper prepared by the Hydrogen Strategy Group (August 2018)
Opportunities for Australia from Hydrogen Exports ( 3.6 MB) - Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) ACIL Allen consulting (August 2018)

Further information

Last updated: 05 Nov 2024