This Month
- Updated
- Energy
Origin Energy deals big blow to Australia’s hydrogen hopes
The electricity and gas giant will not proceed with a project in the Hunter, which had been shortlisted for funding as part of Labor’s $2 billion incentive scheme.
- Updated
- Elouise Fowler and Jessica Sier
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
What really killed Origin’s big hydrogen dream
It’s becoming clear that optimism, ambition and government support are not enough to compensate for the risks facing hydrogen project developers like Origin Energy.
- James Thomson
September
Korean $1.5b hostile bid sparks fears for Qld renewables play
A contentious bid for control of Korea Zinc has thrown the future of one of the east coast’s largest renewable energy and hydrogen players into doubt.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith and James Hall
Australia and Germany in $660m hydrogen funding initiative
Chris Bowen has rejected commentary about the death of hydrogen industry, claiming production could reach a million tonnes a year in five years.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith and James Hall
This man’s $168k annual saving gives hope for net zero
Household rooftop solar has taken off, but small and medium firms have barely started. The huge reduction in the cost of solar panels and batteries may change that.
- Ben Potter
August
Hydrogen-powered skyscraper set for Egypt’s new desert capital
The 50-storey skyscraper will rise in a new capital being built from scratch in the desert east of Cairo.
- Aidan Lewis
Hydrogen collapse entangles big Australian companies
Fortescue, Cleanaway and Wesfarmers are among the creditors and debtors named in the latest corporate collapse to shake the struggling hydrogen sector.
- Peter Ker
From evangelist to pragmatist: Andrew Forrest’s green hydrogen pivot
This week on The Fin podcast, resources reporter Peter Ker on what this retreat means for the government’s green energy plans and Fortescue’s future.
- Updated
July
- Opinion
- Opinion
Hard energy reality has mugged Fortescue’s hydrogen dreams
Andrew Forrest is not alone. Many corporates have suffered a similar delusion about simple, easy and cheap transition.
- Patrick Gibbons
Mining boss calls for policy changes with more jobs in danger
The boss of WA’s peak resources lobby group says the Albanese government needs to step up to prevent more job losses.
- Brad Thompson and Tom Rabe
Energy CEOs urge industry not to quit hydrogen dream
Australian businesses need to be smarter and work harder to overcome the cost hurdles in hydrogen, which has a strong future in some industries, CEOs insist.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Don’t put all energy transition eggs in one green basket
The energy revolution is producing militant evangelists and sceptics of individual technologies. Andrew Forrest’s hydrogen retreat shows policymakers need to be more open-minded.
- The AFR View
Green hydrogen too ‘expensive and inefficient’: Finkel
Former chief scientist Alan Finkel – who devised Australia’s first clean hydrogen strategy – now says we are “unlikely to use hydrogen for storage of electricity”.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith, Peter Ker and Jessica Sier
Albanese sticks to hydrogen despite Fortescue retreat
Andrew Forrest ditching plans to produce 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030 has sparked questions over the government’s climate policies.
- Andrew Tillett and Brad Thompson
Forrest says Element Zero execs burned bridges ‘like Nazis’
Fortescue chairman Andrew Forrest has distanced himself from surveillance tactics used against former employees, but fully supported the IP lawsuit against them.
- Peter Ker
- Opinion
- Opinion
Picking green over blue is stalling our hydrogen superpower hopes
Labor’s tax incentive scheme maintains the habit of describing identical molecules with colours of the rainbow. It is out of step with Australia’s competitors and customers
- David Heard
Fortescue’s pivot shakes faith in Labor’s Hydrogen Headstart strategy
Power prices would need to drop steeply and electrolyser costs more than halve to produce hydrogen at anywhere near a competitive level, the industry has warned.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Reality bites for Forrest’s hydrogen dream. Investors won’t mind
The biggest shake-up of Fortescue’s structure and strategy in years will be music to the market’s ear, but is more evidence the energy transition is spluttering.
- James Thomson
- Updated
- Energy
Labor’s hydrogen dream stalls as Fortescue slims down H2 vision
Fortescue will cut 700 jobs and slow its push into green hydrogen in a blow to the Albanese government’s plan to make Australia a hydrogen superpower supported by more than $8 billion of taxpayer funded incentives.
- Peter Ker and Angela Macdonald-Smith
Labor’s green hydrogen rules for $6.7b subsidy splits producers
Criteria being proposed for renewable hydrogen could mean emissions rise instead of fall as projects “cannibalise” the grid, green advocates warn.
- Angela Macdonald-Smith