South East independent members of parliament Troy Bell and Nick McBride are backing the Labor State Government’s legislation regarding hydrogen-generated power.
Mr Bell has told the House of Assembly that he will keep promoting the South East as an ideal place for hydrogen generation due to its abundance of fresh water and renewable energy.
“It has more fresh water probably running out to sea every day than nearly any other part of South Australia, and with the renewable energy in solar and windfarms along our coastlines it has abundant renewable energy,” Mr Bell said.
“The other component that you need to have for a hydrogen hub would be a major end user, and the South East has those as well, with the Kimberly-Clark Australia Millicent Mill being a big consumer of energy and Alcoa making aluminium at the Port of Portland.
“If you are going to transport hydrogen out of the country, you need a deep-sea port.
“Again, the Port of Portland provides that facility.
“Whilst I applaud and certainly support the government looking at many areas across South Australia for hydrogen development and production, the South East is ideally suited, along with other areas, for that hydrogen.
“This type of legislation will lead proponents who want to bring their dollars to South Australia to invest in South Australia with these developments, creating jobs and renewable energy, in particular hydrogen.
“I am very supportive of the government’s direction.”
Meanwhile, Mr McBride noted in the same debate that successive governments had attempted to keep energy costs down for the KCA Millicent Mill.
“Governments should make sure, if there is an access opportunity for Kimberly-Clark to use hydrogen and renewable power to substitute its high need on natural gas, that we allow them to do so,” Mr McBride said.
“This is all yet to be determined, about how much the Millicent Mill can use in the way of hydrogen and natural energy.
“We have the Lake Bonney wind farm there, which is one of the older wind farms in South Australia.
“The fans have certainly been superseded by newer and bigger ones, but I know the wind farm now has a large battery on board.
“It is certainly not used to its maximum because the competition to access the grid is not as easy as it probably was when it first started.
“I know that we could benefit more from that production if we could get more of the energy used for the likes of hydrogen.”
