Newcastle port gets $320M federal hydrogen export boost

The federal government has committed $320 million to develop Newcastle Port as the Hunter Valley's primary hydrogen export hub, reflecting the port's infrastructure advantages — deep water access, proximity to the Hunter renewable energy zone, and the existing bulk terminal expertise that can be adapted to hydrogen export logistics — that make it the preferred location for connecting the Hunter's green hydrogen production capacity to the Japanese and Korean customers who have signed conditional offtake agreements for Australian green hydrogen.

The funding will build hydrogen liquefaction facilities, cryogenic storage tanks, and specialised loading arms that allow hydrogen to be loaded onto purpose-built hydrogen carriers for the Pacific crossing to customer terminals in Japan's Kobe and Kawasaki hydrogen reception infrastructure. The export capacity will initially be 50,000 tonnes per year, expandable to 200,000 tonnes as the upstream production capacity in the Hunter develops.

Port of Newcastle chief executive Craig Carmody said the federal commitment "transforms Newcastle from a coal port into a clean energy gateway," noting the symbolic and commercial significance of the port that exported the Hunter Valley's coal for more than a century now positioning itself as the export point for the clean energy that will replace coal in the Japanese and Korean industrial economies that have been the primary customers of Hunter coal.

The hydrogen export program is expected to create approximately 250 permanent jobs at the terminal and support several thousand jobs in the upstream green hydrogen production that the export market will stimulate in the Hunter renewable energy zone.

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