Plans to open Australia’s first commercial hydrogen refuelling station in Geelong won’t meet project deadlines according to Viva Energy.
The company announced in March last year it planned to have a New Energies Service Station operating in Corio by late 2023, again stating in July the project was “on track” for delivery this year.
It was up to Chair Robert Hill to break it to shareholders at the company’s AGM last week that this was no longer the case.
“The service station will be developed over the course of next year,” he said.
The former Howard government Environment Minister confirmed delivery of the technology that will produce the hydrogen fuel is still expected within the next three months.
“Our electrolyser arrives in the third quarter of this year,” he said.
Viva hopes the Geelong service station will be the catalyst for a network of hydrogen refuelling stations up the east coast to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
Mr Hill said the process of establishing a relatively new industry to the country was testing, but the company is happy with its progress.
“In terms of being the national leader and in some ways experimenting as to how this is going to work in a national perspective, we are where we want to be, the pace of implementation seems to be about right.”
There’s a particular focus on its application for heavy vehicles and the company has signed partnerships with Toll, Cleanaway, Barwon Water and ComfortDelGro to run and refuel a series of hydrogen-powered buses and trucks through the site.
Mr Hill says interest from further partners is increasing since the project was announced.
“We now have a heavier transport sector that have approached us and said they want to be part of it as well, so that’s required some re-design to provide a capacity to service heavy vehicles.”
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has allocated $22.8m to the project and a further $1m is coming from the Victorian Government’s Renewable Hydrogen Commercialisation Pathways Fund.
Image: An artists render of Viva Energy’s hydrogen service station that’s now expected to be operational in 2024 (Viva Energy).