Fortescue Energy boss Mark Hutchinson says Australia must get power prices down to about $US30 ($45.36) a megawatt hour if it wants to be a hydrogen superpower, under a goal that would effectively require a halving of power prices across much of the eastern states.

Mr Hutchinson’s power price challenge came as he warned that Fortescue and Incitec Pivot would find it “tough” to proceed with a plan to retrofit Queensland’s Gibson Island fertiliser plant towards a future in hydrogen and ammonia unless governments helped mitigate the high cost of clean energy.