On Friday the 12th of March, Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) Project Partners held a celebration to mark the commencement of operations at both Victorian sites of the Pilot Project.
Over 70 guests, including the Australian, Victorian, and Japanese Governments, media, travelled to Traralgon on the sunny morning to celebrate the project milestone.
The day began with live crosses to ABC News Breakfast around the country, where Jeremy Stone, Non-Executive Director of J-Power Latrobe Valley, gave journalist Madeleine Morris a tour of the HESC gasification site and explained HESC’s hydrogen development process.
Later in the morning Jane Oakley, CEO of Committee for Gippsland, spoke to Madeleine about the region’s hydrogen future.
Throughout the event, key speeches were given by: The Hon. Angus Taylor, Minister for Energy Reduction Emissions; Mr Shingo Yamagami; Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan in Australia; The Hon. Darren Chester, Minister for Defence Personnel; Mr Tim Pallas, Treasurer of Victoria; and Dr Alan Finkel, Australian Government Hydrogen Advisor as well as other distinguished guests and project partners.
Mr Yamagami welcomed guests to the event and commented on the beauty of the day saying, “I think this weather is auspicious of things to come.”
The celebration culminated in a ribbon-cutting led by Shinichi Sakuno, Managing Director of J-Power Latrobe Valley and Hirofumi Kawazoe, General Manager of Hydrogen Engineering Australia (representatives of both Australian project sites).
Due to COVID-19, Japanese representatives were not able to join the physical event, but over 55 viewers from Japan joined via live stream.
By the end of the day, news about the HESC Project’s success had reached half a billion people, globally.
Over the coming months, operations at each of the Latrobe Valley and Hasting’s sites will continue and the pilot will yield data and insights that feed into the pathway to commercialisation. Liquefied hydrogen will be stored in Hastings until shipments commence this year.