{"id":325442,"date":"2024-05-02T09:56:03","date_gmt":"2024-05-02T07:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=325442"},"modified":"2024-05-02T09:56:06","modified_gmt":"2024-05-02T07:56:06","slug":"renewable-energy-is-too-expensive-to-make-green-hydrogen-twiggy-goes-to-arizona-instead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=325442","title":{"rendered":"Renewable energy is too expensive to make \u201cgreen hydrogen\u201d \u2014 Twiggy goes to Arizona instead"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
(PRNewsfoto\/Frost & Sullivan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From JoNova <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Jo Nova<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image by\u00a0Manuel Angel Egea<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Only 18 months ago the Australian government gave $14 million dollars to Andrew \u201cTwiggy\u201d Forrest<\/a> to figure out if his team could build a 500MW electrolyser to make hydrogen gas on an island near Brisbane. It was going to be a glorious Australian green-techno future, the largest hydrogen plant in the world, but it\u2019s missed three deadlines in the last three months to greenlight the project<\/a>. Instead the Australian company is going overseas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Nick Cater points out this part of the made-in-Australia renewable superpower is going to be made-in-Arizona because they still have cheap electricity \u2014 a  miraculous 7.5c a kilowatt hour!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Australia\u2019s manufacturing decline is a story of broken promises and failed industry welfare programs<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n
\n
\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Nick Cater, The Australian<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bowen described the project\u2019s success as \u201ccritical\u201d to Australia\u2019s ambition to be a green energy superpower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out abundant sun was not such a competitive advantage in the manufacture of green hydrogen. Low taxes, fiscally responsible government and cheap and reliable carbon-free energy are far more appealing drawcards for investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future is already being built in Buckeye, Arizona, where Fortescue is investing $US500m ($765m) in a green hydrogen plant it says will be up and running by 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, manufacturing in Arizona grew faster than in any other state. It includes energy and water-intensive industries such as silicon chip manufacturing, with Arizona coming from nowhere to fourth place among US states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

..It isn\u2019t hard to work out why. Arizona\u2019s top state income tax rate is 2.98 per cent. \u2026 For energy-hungry industries such as hydrogen and the IT sector, however, the biggest attraction is the industrial electricity price: 7.47 cents a kWh in Arizona compared to 18 cents in California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our electricity prices are twice as high as any hydrogen industry could bear<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

We are so far out of the running. Last month the boss of Fortescue Energy said he was hoping our prices would fall (by half!), and cites Norway as an example of \u201ccheap renewable energy\u201d as if we could emulate that. It\u2019s a bit rich given that the only renewable energy Norway uses is hydropower (96%). Norway has 31GW of hydropower while we have 4GW and can\u2019t even tack on a 2GW pumped hydro dessert. To put it bluntly, Norway has a thousand fjords and a half million lakes<\/a> and Australia has no fjords and about fifty salt lakes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fortescue says hydrogen hopes rest on a halving of power prices<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

By Peter Kerr, Australian Financial Review, March 11 2024<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Hutchinson [Fortescue Energy boss] told The Australian Financial Review Business Summit<\/a> that high power prices were the main impediment at Gibson Island. \u201cWe\u2019ve been working very, very hard on it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s tough based on the current power prices when we\u2019re looking at competing globally. It\u2019s a tough decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company expects to approve a green hydrogen project in Norway this year which would be powered by carbon-free hydroelectricity. \u201cIf you look around the world where you can get cheap renewable power, competitive renewable power is below $US30 a megawatt hour,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"Impossible<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The irony is that to make hydrogen he needs the cheap power we used to have on the Australian national grid before we started adding renewables (after 2008 when Kevin Rudd was elected). For twenty years the whole Australian grid price was about $30 a megawatt hour. At a point after 2012, when the carbon tax was added, electricity prices rose up beyond the $50 per megawatt hour price limit that makes hydrogen industry unrealistic, and never came back down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once upon a time, Australia had electricity so cheap no one would have bought hydrogen. Now electricity is so expensive, hydrogen might be competitive, except no one can afford to make it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the Penrose impossible triangle<\/a>, just keep going left and it never makes sense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

REFERENCE<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AER quarterly wholesale electricity prices 1999- 2023<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Only 18 months ago the Australian government gave\u00a0$14 million dollars to Andrew \u201cTwiggy\u201d Forrest\u00a0to figure out if his team could build a 500MW electrolyser to make hydrogen gas on an island near Brisbane. It was going to be a glorious Australian green-techno future, the largest hydrogen plant in the world, but it\u2019s missed three deadlines in the last three months to greenlight the project. Instead the Australian company is going overseas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":325448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691820818,691819849,691818181],"class_list":{"0":"post-325442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-australian-government","9":"tag-green-hydrogen","10":"tag-renewable-energy","12":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/0green_hydrogen.jpg?fit=2700%2C1414&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1mF4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":337068,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=337068","url_meta":{"origin":325442,"position":0},"title":"The Hydrogen Titanic just sank in Australia because renewable electricity costs too much","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/20\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"The Great Green Hydrogen dream was killed by the dual impossibility paradox, it has no customers prepared to pay the Gucci level rates, and it can\u2019t be made cheaper without using brown coal to which would mean it isn\u2019t \u201cgreen\u201d.","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0-Hindenburg-explosio.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0-Hindenburg-explosio.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0-Hindenburg-explosio.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0-Hindenburg-explosio.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0-Hindenburg-explosio.jpeg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":340593,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=340593","url_meta":{"origin":325442,"position":1},"title":"The Energy Transition Ain’t Happening: “Clean Fuels”","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"08\/25\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Come here for the latest news on how the so-called \u201cenergy transition\u201d is grinding to a halt. No amount of government handouts can make this ridiculously uneconomic fantasy work.","rel":"","context":"In \"biofuels\"","block_context":{"text":"biofuels","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=biofuels"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0WordPress-Plumptre.jpg?fit=1200%2C420&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0WordPress-Plumptre.jpg?fit=1200%2C420&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0WordPress-Plumptre.jpg?fit=1200%2C420&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0WordPress-Plumptre.jpg?fit=1200%2C420&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0WordPress-Plumptre.jpg?fit=1200%2C420&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":337359,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=337359","url_meta":{"origin":325442,"position":2},"title":"The Energy Transition Ain\u2019t Happening: Hydrogen in Australia","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"07\/23\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"These days, there is lots and lots of news about how the supposed \u201cenergy transition\u201d is not happening. There\u2019s so much news on this subject that I could devote this entire blog to that subject alone and have plenty to occupy my time. Expect multiple posts about this topic over\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Australia\"","block_context":{"text":"Australia","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=australia"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0-Green-hydrogen.jpeg?fit=1200%2C702&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0-Green-hydrogen.jpeg?fit=1200%2C702&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0-Green-hydrogen.jpeg?fit=1200%2C702&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0-Green-hydrogen.jpeg?fit=1200%2C702&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/0-Green-hydrogen.jpeg?fit=1200%2C702&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":349386,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=349386","url_meta":{"origin":325442,"position":3},"title":"Investors Cut Mounting Losses By Ditching Grand \u2018Green\u2019 Hydrogen\u00a0Scam","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/29\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Seems like only yesterday that billionaires backing \u2018green\u2019 hydrogen were falling over themselves to gouge subsidies out of taxpayers in order to create the next \u2018big thing\u2019 in energy. 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