Australia To Decarbonise Busiest Freight Highway

New South Wales and the Victorian governments will spend $20m on hydrogen refuelling stations along Australia’s busiest freight highway. Hydrogen Industry Leaders explores how this will push more zero-emission technologies to be used in the heavy-vehicle industry.

In a joint announcement, the two governments have said that they will each spend $10m on grants to manufacture about 25 hydrogen-fuelled trucks and at least four refuelling stations alongside the 840km Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne.

Matt Kean, New South Wales’s energy minister, said that the grants were designed to show the potential of renewable hydrogen for heavy vehicles with “the goal of transitioning the freight sector to zero emissions energy sources.”

It is said that the grant will help to create new jobs and attract investment to both New South Wales and Victoria, with it expected that the uptake of renewable hydrogen in the transport sector will be increased.

Decarbonising Australia’s busiest freight highway is essential as Victoria’s energy and environment minister, Lily D’Ambrosio, revealed that transport accounted for 25 per cent of the state’s total carbon footprint and that “the partnership between the states was vital to decarbonise the sector.”