Navigating water’s role in the green hydrogen economy
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Diving deeper
The expansion of the Australian hydrogen industry has been gaining momentum for several years. But with many of our water utility clients coming to us for answers on how they should engage with this emerging industry, it became apparent to us that the water sector was increasingly being called on to play its part – but how?
In response to this question, we teamed up with industry leaders and utilities on a four-part webinar series to tackle key questions for water utilities around how to integrate the hydrogen push into strategy, planning for demand uncertainty, the shift in water supply challenges, and hydrogen’s connection to the circular economy.
Consolidating the learnings from these webinars, we’ve created a guide, ‘Navigating water’s role in the green hydrogen economy’, which lays out a pathway for operationalising the water-energy nexus. It draws on expertise from GHD’s own team of technical specialists, as well as the inputs of industry experts and participants, to provide a way forward for the water industry and those seeking to engage with it.
The steps outlined in this guide are designed to help utilities navigate their role in this new green hydrogen economy. And other key stakeholders including financiers, producers and governments can also benefit, by understanding how they need to be engaging with utilities to ensure not only the success of their projects, but also the impact they will have on their communities.
Key findings
- We need to start by defining the role the water utility will play. Can we do it; and if we can, should we? This simple but effective query challenges water authorities to examine their key assets and capabilities (can we?), as well as the tensions existing in their regions around water availability, affordability, and community values (should we?).
- Then, we need to understand the variables. Understanding the many variables to produce green hydrogen can help water utilities decide how best to use their existing assets or where to make investments. Scenario planning is particularly useful here as it allows water utilities to envision multiple futures and avoid locking themselves into a particular pathway or investment.
- Lastly, realise the potential and consider how to maximise the opportunities. One of the benefits of an emerging industry like hydrogen is the ability to explore a growing range of opportunities associated with the introduction of new infrastructure and entities. This includes circular economy synergies such as producing renewable energy from waste, providing a high value use for recycled water, using by-products like oxygen within other processes, and assisting with methane emissions through reusing recycled water treatment biogas, as well as metal or phosphorus recovery.
One thing is clear: all stakeholders involved in the production of hydrogen – private industry, government, regulators, local councils, water utilities, end users and the local community – must engage in open discussions to balance competing interests and ensure public confidence in the investment and appropriate distribution of costs and benefits.”