- Toyota strengthens hydrogen concept at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris
- Auto giant deploys fleet of 500 Mirai fuel cell vehicles
- Nationals Senator Matt Canavan speaks out strongly against hydrogen, but stay tuned
As the official vehicle supplier for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Toyota has taken the opportunity to promote hydrogen as the clean fuel of choice.
The event is an opportunity to raise awareness of the company’s hydrogen fuel cell technology, which powers the company’s fleet of 500 Mirais, as well as prototypes of one of Australia’s most popular cars – the HiLux.
But we digress.
At its core, Mirai’s deployment for the Olympics actually does a wonderful job of raising the visibility of hydrogen, particularly in Europe, where the gas is seen as a core component of the net-zero plan.
Despite the accusation that this is a form of greenwashing – not entirely unjustified given the fact that the planned new power plants in Germany powered by natural gas until there is enough hydrogen for everyone – but it could prove to be another key turn to enable greater use of the gas.
To achieve this goal, numerous steps are necessary.
- More capacity to generate renewable energy, which will power more electrolyzers
- Transport infrastructure, as the transport of gas is known to be significantly more difficult than that of natural gas; and
- Investing in a potential carrier such as ammonia, which is far better understood and easier to transport.
In addition to supply, transport and storage, efforts are also needed to increase demand.
This may require action to harvest the low-hanging fruit, i.e. industries that already use hydrogen in their processes, as well as smaller efforts such as installations at truck refueling stations or similar.
While Have petrol Although the U.S. remains skeptical that hydrogen will ever be viable for the transportation needs of the general population, there are compelling arguments for its use in power generation and commercial transportation.
An opponent of hydrogen?
While Europe is experiencing the positive side of hydrogen, an Australian politician has spoken out against the gas.
National Party Senator Matt Canavan expressed in an opinion piece that, unlike the increasing demand for coal, it will take another 20 years for hydrogen to play a significant role in the energy mix.
He also used the opportunity to sharply criticise the Labor government in Australia for its hydrogen plans, arguing that they would endanger jobs and Australia’s economic future.
However, it was not so long ago that the Honourable Senator spoke out strongly in favour of hydrogen during his time as Minister for Resources and Northern Australia in the previous Coalition Government.
As early as July 2019, Canavan and the then Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction Angus Taylor pointed out that they had come a step closer to a “national hydrogen strategy that will open up export markets in Asia” following the publication of consultation papers. (see Here with working link Here).
If this sounds familiar, it is because the current government has not really abandoned the strategy mentioned above, but has doubled down on its investments.
Canavan also commented on other issues, including how Australia is becoming a World market leader in hydrogen supply for other countries from September 2019, which is basically an earlier version of the Australian Energy Market Operator Hydrogen superpower scenario.
So why did Canavan make a U-turn?
One of them is obviously political: the opposition does not appear to support anything related to renewable energy, and the current government has moved from the previous “clean hydrogen” stance of its predecessor government to a focus on green hydrogen in terms of hydrogen strategy.
“Clean hydrogen“” is a term used by both industry and the previous government to refer to any form of hydrogen production – be it by gasifying coal or cracking methane (natural gas) – as long as the resulting emissions are managed, presumably through the use of carbon capture and storage.
In contrast, green hydrogen uses renewable energy to power electrolyzers that split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.
Secondly, and this is related to the first point, Canavan is a staunch supporter of coal and anything that could deter him from doing so is a big no-no.
This is precisely why the current version of the National Hydrogen Strategy is unacceptable to him and therefore deserves the worst blow he can deliver against it.
