S&P Global Platts launches first daily hydrogen assessments for Australia 

S&P Global Platts has launched Australia’s first set of hydrogen price assessments, starting August 16, 2021.

Anton Ferkov, Hydrogen Content and Pricing Specialist (APAC) at S&P Global Platts, said: “Our new Australia Hydrogen assessments are in direct response to requests from market participants wanting greater transparency to understand the cost of Hydrogen production in Australia. These assessments strengthen our global suite of Hydrogen prices and reflect Australia’s role as a significant hub for future hydrogen production. Hydrogen continues to attract interest from investors, policymakers and energy market participants as a carrier for clean energy.”

Platts launched the world’s first hydrogen evaluations in December 2019 for North America and Europe, and expanded its price knowledge into Asia in April 2020. Today’s Platts daily hydrogen price assessments comprise ten US regional price sets, one Canadian price set, and prices from the United Kingdom, Netherlands, and Japan. These ratings reflect the value of hydrogen produced at global hubs in high-consumption regions.

The new Platts Australia hydrogen prices are comprised of 128 assessments spanning across six states and are based on different cost-based hydrogen production methods. Prices for proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis (including Capex) ranged from $2.699/kg in Tasmania to $4.409/kg in Western Australia in the first ever hydrogen assessments for Australia, using data from Aug. 13. Prices for alkaline electrolysis (including Capex) ranged from $1.509/kg in Tasmania to $2.989/kg in Western Australia. These prices are significantly lower than those in Japan and the Netherlands. For example, PEM was priced at $6.136/kg in Japan on the same day (including Capex), and at Eur7.316/kg in the Netherlands (including Capex, grid only).

The addition of Australia broadens the range of prices to cover one of the anticipated hydrogen production centres. The new rates will represent the daily cost of producing hydrogen via five different processes: PEM electrolysis, alkaline electrolysis, steam methane reforming with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), coal gasification with CCS, and lignite gasification with CCS. Daily hydrogen costs will be published for the following states: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia, for both PEM and alkaline electrolysis.

S&P Global Platts Analytics expects around 7.0 million mt H2/year of announced hydrogen capacity from renewable sources by2030, largely to meet demand from the power, industrial, chemical, and transportation sectors.