Australia is situated to become a ‘hydrogen superpower’ according to new findings from Geoscience Australia.
Scientists with the Federal Government’s Exploring for the Future program have confirmed the potential for large-scale, underground storage of hydrogen in salt caverns across the country.
Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Madeleine King, said the findings demonstrated Australia’s ‘monumental potential’ as a hydrogen superpower.
“Geoscience Australia has uncovered potential for the development of multiple caverns underground in salt deposits across the Canning Basin in Western Australia, the Adavale Basin in Queensland and the offshore Polda Basin in South Australia,” Ms King said.
“A single large salt cavern could provide the same amount of energy storage as Snowy Hydro 2.0 with multiple caverns this size possible in the same area.
“Hydrogen is a clean fuel and large-scale cost-effective storage of hydrogen will be essential in achieving our long-term goals for the future.
“This new information captured by the Exploring for the Future program and other major discoveries demonstrate Australia’s monumental potential as a hydrogen superpower.
Using Geoscience Australia data, Chalice Mining, through their Julimar project, have uncovered a massive supply of palladium, platinum, nickel, copper, cobalt, and gold just 70 kilometres northeast of Perth in the Gonneville deposit.
“Some of the minerals found in this deposit are essential to generating hydrogen, so it is fantastic that the world’s biggest discovery of such minerals in the last 20 years was in our own backyard in Western Australia,” Ms King said.
“An independent assessment of the impact of the Julimar project will be released at the showcase, highlighting the immense value of the work Geoscience does in supporting discoveries like Gonneville.”
For more information and to view the recent virtual Exploring for the Future showcase, visit: ga.gov.au/showcase.
