Hydrogen Park South Australia is Australia’s first milestone in its renewable gas journey and will set the wheels in motion towards our ambition of achieving net-zero carbon emissionsMichael Bielinski, Managing Director of Siemens Energy Australasia
Power-to-Gas project in South Australia
Hydrogen has been dubbed the fuel of the future, an answer to the world’s escalating energy needs. Being one of the most abundant elements found in the universe, its ability to produce electricity without any harmful by-products strengthens its unlimited applications across industries.
In South Australia, renewable energy is having a field day in wake of the country’s 2050 net zero emissions targets. Experts foresee a surge in low carbon initiatives including hydrogen projects in Australia. The Australian Gas Network (AGN), part of the Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG), has taken the first step towards low carbon gas supply through an innovative project called Hydrogen Park South Australia (HyPSA).
Located within Tonsley Innovation District, HyPSA is an $11.4 million demonstration project with a $4.9 million grant from the South Australian Government.
Australia’s largest hydrogen electrolyzer today
Siemens Energy is one of the industry partners of HyPSA by virtue of its 1.25 MW Sylizer proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer, the largest of its kind (accurate at time of publication) installed for hydrogen production in Australia. With the electrolyzer, renewable hydrogen is produced using water and renewable electricity resulting in net zero emissions. The highly dynamic PEM technology is ideally suited to harvest volatile energy generated from wind and solar power, which racks up net zero carbon in the process.
Advancing green hydrogen in Australia
With this innovative solution, the facility is able to produce an estimated of 20 kilograms of clean hydrogen per hour, amounting to 175 tonnes of green hydrogen for Australia each year. Unutilized hydrogen can be stored for later use, sent directly to the hydrogen and gas blending equipment, or compressed into hydrogen tube trailers for transporting.
Up to 5% of renewable hydrogen is blended with natural gas. and supplied to around 700 nearby homes via the existing gas network since May 2021. Residents still receive the same quality of gas and service at the same price.
A 5 percent mix of hydrogen into natural gas may seem like an insignificant figure today, but it is a quantum leap in our pursuit of decarbonizing the entire energy sector. Our engineers and scientists are continuously pushing the boundaries of our PEM solution, and I am confident that it is a matter of time until we achieve 100 percent renewable gas in our networksMichael Bielinski, Managing Director of Siemens Energy Australasia
Green e-Hydrogen gained via electrolysis from renewable energy sources is the key to a CO2-free future. Find all you need to know in the new Siemens Energy white paper on Power-to-X: an overview of use cases and solution packages for industries, utilities and project developers – with prime examples on how it all works.
Hydrogen for a sustainable and secure energy transition
Combating climate change requires the decarbonization of economic systems worldwide including all carbon-emitting sectors. More and more countries, regions and companies are committing themselves to climate neutrality and see hydrogen as key energy carrier to reach net zero CO₂ emissions in the future for those sectors in industry, mobility and energy that cannot be decarbonized by electrification.