- The Green Highway: A network of fast-charging and Green Hydrogen fuelling stations on Australia’s major highways – all powered by renewable energy
Australian green hydrogen specialist Infinite Blue Energy (IBE) has this morning entered into an agreement with NewVolt Infrastructure (NewVolt) to supply Green Hydrogen for road transport.
This will be executed through a planned network of 17 electric vehicle (EV) fast-charging infrastructure and green hydrogen fuelling stations at key locations on major road transport routes. The partnership is expected to shine a spotlight on the huge potential for Australia to rapidly transition the heavy transport sector to electric and hydrogen fuel cell trucks by harnessing Australia’s enviable renewable energy resources.
The NewVolt network will span the major transport corridors between Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, delivering on-route fast-charging and Green Hydrogen refuelling stations, powered by renewable energy.
The first refuelling stations are planned for the Wodonga and Newcastle areas, leveraging existing and new infrastructure. These will host Australia’s first electric and hydrogen truck vehicles operating in and around the port area catering to a range of haulage applications. Further sites will be developed soon after, under the agreement, with infrastructure deployed to allow freight movements from Adelaide through to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane with battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. Future expansions are planned for Western Australia, spanning Perth to Port Headland and Perth to Adelaide, ensuring total coverage from East to West.
NewVolt and IBE are also looking to collaborate with several automotive manufacturers, transport end users and fleet operators to accelerate the deployment of electric and fuel cell vehicles across the network. Green Hydrogen is produced using renewable energy from wind and solar, with no carbon debt. The only emissions from hydrogen powered fuel cell vehicles are heat and water vapour.
“Green Hydrogen is the most innovative solution for decarbonising heavy transport given Australia’s vast geography, and we are delighted to be partnering with NewVolt in establishing fuelling facilities around Australia. The lack of sufficient quantities of green hydrogen has been a major barrier for businesses to transition away from diesel, and IBE is seen as the key to breaking this barrier,” IBE chief executive officer Stephen Gauld said.
Australia’s road transport sector is a large contributor to Australia’s national footprint of carbon emissions with diesel vehicles providing the largest share of those emissions. IBE and NewVolt see the deployment of readily available public infrastructure as “a logical step forward”, offering clean fuel solutions as the “critical ingredient” for enabling the adoption of electric and fuel cell vehicles.
NewVolt and IBE both believe that the supply of Green Hydrogen and fast-charging services across the network, powered by renewable energy, will not only deliver on zero emission goals for the transport sector but also provide fuel security and long-term transport cost savings to the benefit of the Australian economy.
“Given our abundant renewable energy resources, Australia has the opportunity to be a global leader in the energy transition within the transport sector. And as a country we also have plenty of strategic reasons to shift our logistics industry, and economy more generally, away from dependence on price volatile imported diesel. NewVolt is very excited to be collaborating with IBE to both supply green hydrogen, and collaborate more generally, to activate demand for zero emissions vehicles. We see this collaboration as providing an important message to industry that the infrastructure will be in place in Australia so the transport industry can start planning for and making investment decisions in relation to electric and hydrogen vehicles”. NewVolt Managing Director Greg Politakis stated.
Politakis added: “Many fleet operators and transport end users already understand the business case benefits that battery electric and fuel cell vehicles will deliver given the low cost energy that can be delivered through renewables in Australia. The benefits also include lower maintenance costs and fuel price certainty not to mention the air quality benefits of zero emissions vehicles for drivers and the communities within which the vehicles operate. But to make this transition happen quickly in Australia, we do need a broad coalition of industry partners that want to show leadership in decarbonising this critical sector of the economy.”
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