Small businesses are leading the uptake in transitioning to renewable hydrogen in Tasmania, as access to the clean energy technology prepares for rollout next year.
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Following a successful round crowd-funding earlier this year, Bell Bay-based renewable energy company LINE Hydrogen recently asked for expressions of interests from local businesses interested in making the shift away from fossil-fuels.
Executive chairman and founder Brendan James said overwhelming the EOIs had come from family-run small and medium-sized businesses seeking advice on adopting the green technology.
Mr James said the company was rolling out the infrastructure, equipment, and hydrogen, to minimise the cost and difficulty to business in transitioning to renewable energy.
"If you're a small or medium sized business and you are making that move, and offering a zero emission, zero carbon product, you've certainly got a big opportunity to become a big business".
He said the range of applicants looking to transition to hydrogen had provided a new series of challenges for an industry still in its infancy.
"There's no rules around this yet," Mr James said.
"So some of the requests [from business owners] that have come back to us, I've just never thought of before, but there's a way to to address that with with every one of these applications".
However, despite the initial enthusiasm from local business owners, he said the uptake from larger businesses and multinational corporations operating in the state had been slower.
The company is currently building one of the largest green-hydrogen production facilities in Australia after a successful crowd-funding campaign, which saw $1.3 million raised.
Mr James said the facility would position Tasmania as a renewable leader in the country, as it moves away from fossil-fuel dependency.
The "Great Southern Project" aims to deliver hydrogen to the state's haulage and light vehicle fleets, and provide clean replacements for generators and boilers used in manufacturing and distilling.
The company, which aims to begin production of green hydrogen by 2023, will use the Bell Bay Solar Farm to source its electricity.
While still nascent, and with limited infrastructure, hydrogen is being eyed by businesses and government as a low-emission replacement for diesel.
For Mr James, it's a part-solution to a three-pronged problem of meeting the newly legislated national emissions target, reducing Australia's reliance on diesel imports, and - in the face of on-going energy issues in Europe - ensuring the country's own energy supply is secure.
"We import 90% of the diesel that we bring into this country,
"And when you combine security of supply with CO2 emissions and the improvement of our terms of trade, it's a no brainer, we should be getting on to hydrogen as a replacement for fossil fuels,
"The eyes of the world are on Tasmania, and North Tasmania and Georgetown in particular," he said.
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