Hydrogen Headstart Round 2

Overview

In the May 2024 Federal Budget, the Australian Government announced $2 billion of funding for Hydrogen Headstart Round 2. The Program is designed to fund large-scale hydrogen production projects to accelerate development of Australia’s renewable hydrogen industry, catalyse clean energy industries and help Australia connect to new global hydrogen supply chains. The Objectives of Hydrogen Headstart Round 2 are to: Produce renewable hydrogen at scale in Australia, facilitating an accelerated pathway to the technical and commercial viability of renewable hydrogen production and use, in alignment with the priority use cases and goals of the National Hydrogen Strategy; Support domestic decarbonisation, build industry capability and provide for new economic opportunities in our manufacturing and export industries; Provide price discovery and transparency in relation to the current and projected economics for renewable hydrogen (and derivative product) technologies; Reduce barriers for future deployments through developing construction expertise, skilled labour, intellectual property, developing supply chains and attracting key equipment manufacturers and private sector capital (debt, equity and offtake); and Facilitate knowledge sharing throughout industry to assist with maturing the Australian renewable hydrogen industry. Funding under the Program will be provided in the form of the Headstart Production Credit (HPC), being support provided per unit of production over a 10-year period of operations. Up to $2 billion of funding is available under Hydrogen Headstart Round 2. The Program Guidelines (the Guidelines) detail the competitive process that will be used to assess projects under the Program.