A joint study by the Port of Rotterdam Authority and the Tasmanian government shows that importing green hydrogen from Tasmania, an island southeast of Australia, has great potential

In Tasmania, much electricity can be produced from wind, a bit of solar and balancing with hydroelectric power, leading to one of the lowest costs for the production of green hydrogen in the world. The cost of transportation over a longer distance is relatively small and not a limiting factor. With the port in Rotterdam becoming an international distribution hub for hydrogen, Tasmanian hydrogen can become part of the supplymix and assist to boost the new green hydrogen economy in the Netherlands and northwestern Europe.

The Tasmanian government and the Port of Rotterdam signed a Memorandum of Understanding in December 2021 to assess the feasibility of exporting green hydrogen to Rotterdam. Since then officials from the Tasmanian government and the Port of Rotterdam Authority have been working together intensely to study the potential supplychain to export green hydrogen to Rotterdam from Tasmania. One of the conclusions of the study was that the distance from the Tasmanian port of Bell Bay to Rotterdam is not a limiting factor. The cost of overseas transportation is canceled out by the relatively low cost of producing green hydrogen in Tasmania where wind and hydroelectric power are abundant. There are good opportunities for large-scale off-shore wind farms in the Bass straight, north of Tasmania, where the country can benefit from the Dutch knowledge and experience in that sector. The market opportunities are also favorable; demand for green hydrogen will continue to grow rapidly in Northwest Europe for the industry to achieve its CO2 reduction targets.

It is important that the Tasmanian government takes a leading role in further developing the necessary infrastructure and scaling up green power and hydrogen production; first of all to meet the local demand and then for exports. Close cooperation with Europe is critical where regulation and certification are concerned for exporting to Europe.