In September 2018 ARENA awarded over $22 million to 16 Research and Development teams from across Australia to investigate new and improved ways to make, move and use green hydrogen.  Most of those projects are now completed, and a new report summarises the outcomes and lessons learned.
 

Image: The contributions of ARENA-funded projects to the green hydrogen supply chain
 

Read the Summary of ARENA-funded R&D Projects

Commercial ventures being formed to take a new technology to market is one of the most promising indications of successful R&D. ARENA’s most recent hydrogen R&D funding round attracted the interest of some of Australia’s largest industry players. For example, Rio Tinto, whose Chief Scientist visited a UNSW project and subsequently established a $2 million ongoing research collaboration to adapt the technology for use at remote mining communities.

Three other projects were so commercially promising that companies were established to attract funding and take them to market. Jupiter Ionics started from the Monash project on renewable Ammonia; Hydgene started from the Macquarie University project that has created hydrogen-producing bacteria; and Hysata is commercialising a revolutionary electrolyser design based on a process informed by Wollongong University, Monash University and ANU research projects. Hysata has recently attracted over $40 million of investments and has been granted ARENA funding to build a 200kW pilot demonstration.
 

Image: HydGene research scientist Ari Drogo holding a sample of waste wheat straw that can feed their customised bacteria to produce hydrogen. Source: HydGene
 

• Read the Final Report - UNSW Waste Biomass to Renewable Hydrogen Project
• Read Monash University's Ammonia Production from Renewables Project
• Read the Final Report - Macquarie University's Biological Hydrogen Production Project

ARENA has been delighted with the early response to its new $50 million funding round for R&D projects in green hydrogen and Low Emissions Metals. This Transformative Research Accelerating Commercialisation (TRAC) Program is different because it involves two phases: an initial laboratory-based research phase followed by a commercialisation phase aimed at scaling up and demonstrating research breakthroughs with commercial partners. 

Stay tuned for details of the successful projects that will help shape our green energy future.

Read the full program guidelines 

Electric Vehicles

• Ampol is delivering a project to install over 100 fast charging stations across four regions in Australia to address black spots.
• Read Ampol's third Lessons Learnt Report here.

Demand Response

• Shell Energy are implementing Smart Energy Hubs throughout Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria, across 40 commerical and industrial (C&I) customer sites to demonstrate new flexible demand capacity of 21.5MW.
• Read their first Lessons Learnt Report here. 
• Read their Regulatory Reforms Report here.

Distributed Energy Resources

• Project Converge is a collaboration between the ACT government, Evoenergy, Zeppelin Bend, and researchers from the ANU who have been investigating opportunities to optimise DER impacts by dynamic and shaped operating envelopes. 
• Read their first report with interim insights here.
• Read their technical design and implementation report here. 

Solar PV R&D

• An ANU research team have been investigating the use of multifunctional dielectric layers to produce high-efficiency solar cells.
• Read the team's final report here.
• UNSW researchers are working on efficient and eco-friendly methods to recycle silicon-based PV panels.
• Read the team's Phase 1 Report here. 
• A team from UNSW, with support from BT Imaging and Jinko Solar, have investigated the use of machine-learning techniques to improve the effectiveness of quality inspection methods.
• Read the team's Final Report here. 
• UNSW researchers have worked with commercial partners to address the efficiency limits of industrial screen-printed PERC and TOPCon solar cells.
• Read the team's Lessons Learnt Report here.