Construction begins on Albury-Wodonga hydrogen project

Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG) has announced that work has begun on the construction of the $65 million Hydrogen Park Murray Valley project in Albury-Wodonga.

A 10 MW LONGi Hydrogen electrolyser will form the centrepiece of the project, enabling Hydrogen Park Murray Valley to generate around 500 tonnes of renewable hydrogen and eliminate upwards of 3000 tonnes of emissions each year, and making it one of Australia’s largest renewable hydrogen projects.

Federal Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy Josh Wilson joined AGIG, its partners and community leaders to mark the beginning of construction on Friday.

The renewable hydrogen from the facility will be blended into the local network at up to 10% by volume to commercial and industrial gas users, and around 40,000 Albury-Wodonga homes and businesses.

Acting AGIG Chief Executive Officer, Cathryn McArthur said the start of construction is a positive signal about the potential for renewable gases in the energy transition.

“This is a project of significant scale, which brings us one step closer to establishing a renewable gas industry in Australia and responds to the needs of customers for more renewable generation to support Australia’s energy transition,” she said. “AGIG is committed to reducing emissions and we believe that renewable gases can play a critical role through the transition. This will be our third hydrogen project, following the success of our renewable Hydrogen Park facilities in South Australia and in Gladstone.

“We have been encouraged by the interest from community and industry in the Murray Valley project, which includes the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding with North-East Water to explore the potential to use recycled water from its wastewater treatment plant as well as supplying it with surplus oxygen from the hydrogen production process.”

Mars Petcare has become the first business in Australia to take this path to reduce its carbon footprint, securing all Renewable Gas Guarantee of Origin certificates allocated to production at Hydrogen Park Murray Valley for its food manufacturing business under GreenPower’s Renewable Gas Certification scheme.

Hydrogen Park Murray Valley is financially supported by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, the Victorian Government and the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

“We thank the Australian and Victorian Governments for their support of this project, along with our project partners and the Albury-Wodonga community for welcoming this important facility,” concluded McArthur.

Image: Artist’s impression of Hydrogen Park Murray Valley. Source: AGIG.