Under their joint venture, which was initially announced in September 2020, Australia and Germany have promised investment of roughly $90 million for hydrogen projects.
Canberra has committed A$50 million ($36.6 million) to hydrogen supply chain projects through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (Arena), with Germany contributing an extra €50 million (54.4 million) to companies that have successfully sought financing.
The funds will be distributed through the Hygate Australia-Germany Hydrogen Innovation and Technology Incubator, one of three projects launched as part of the Australia-Germany hydrogen agreement announced in June 2021.
The agreement’s other two goals are to ease industry-to-industry collaboration on demonstration projects in Australian hydrogen hubs and to look at ways to make it easier to trade hydrogen and its derivatives made from renewables, such as ammonia, between Australia and Germany. According to Australian energy minister Angus Taylor, this includes Germany’s H2Global Initiative, which promotes long-term supply agreements with the German industry.
From 2024, the H2Global Initiative will stimulate the import of green hydrogen produced using renewable energy into Germany.
In November of this year, Australia unveiled its national hydrogen plan. In June 2020, Berlin launched the German hydrogen strategy.
