Latrobe City Council partnered with Victoria’s Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources (DEDJTR) to host a series of briefing sessions on 8 November 2018. The briefings focused on hydrogen production and the Latrobe Valley’s competitive advantage to produce it.
The session was chaired by Bruce Connolly, Manager of Economic Development at the Latrobe City Council and featured representatives from DEDJTR, Australia’s national science agency the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Electric Power Development Co. Ltd. (J-Power), a Project Partner of the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain (HESC) consortium.
Broadly, the briefings discussed growing domestic and international interest in the use of hydrogen as an alternative fuel source and the Latrobe Valley’s unique characteristics making it best placed to capitalise on this.
Dr Patrick Hartley of the CSIRO presented the National Hydrogen Roadmap, outlining the pathways to an economically sustainable hydrogen industry in Australia. Also attending were Jane Burton, Director of Coal Resources, Victoria, and Ian Filby, Project Director of the CarbonNet project.
Seiji Hongo from J-Power Latrobe Valley Pty Ltd (JPLV) on behalf of J-Power, gave a detailed presentation on how the HESC project is exploring the opportunities of hydrogen in Australia. Hongo described how the Latrobe Valley’s brown coal would be converted into hydrogen at the existing Loy Yang Power Station during the HESC project pilot phase. He also touched on CarbonNet’s development of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in Gippsland and how this is integral to the viability of the project’s commercial phase.
J-Power/JPLV were pleased to be invited to present at the Latrobe Valley Briefing Sessions.