A key election promise for SA’s Labor government saw $600 million pledged to a hydrogen plant in the region. As a part of a plan to create more jobs, cheaper power and less carbon emissions, the state government signed an agreement with GFG Alliance to provide it with hydrogen as a shift to green iron and steel production. But amid ongoing concerns about cost and delays, the project has now been shelved, possibly for good.
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00:00Beyond the promise of hydrogen power lies a wasteland.
00:09It was a key election promise for Labor, touted as a green, game-changing investment for the
00:15future.
00:16With the view of creating a future generation of prosperity in our state on the basis of
00:20clean, affordable power.
00:22The $593 million pledge involved a hydrogen electrolyser and power plant that would use
00:29renewable energy to split water into oxygen and hydrogen to fuel electricity generators.
00:36But that money has now been reallocated to the $2.4 billion wireless support package.
00:42Today is a day of bailouts and also, of course, broken promises.
00:47The Wireless Steelworks, under GFG, was meant to be a major customer for the hydrogen, as
00:52part of the company's long-promised transition to carbon-neutral green steel.
00:57There's no point in producing hydrogen if there's not a customer for it, and the first
01:00step is to actually realise what was supposed to happen from GFG.
01:04Despite long-running doubts about the cost of the project and its timeline, the Premier
01:09continued to commit to the hydrogen power plant, until his rhetoric began changing in
01:15the last few weeks.
01:17What the Premier should do is he should admit to the people of South Australia that he stuffed
01:21up and that he got this one wrong.
01:23The Office of Hydrogen Power, which was set up to oversee the state's hydrogen jobs plan
01:28and hydrogen industry, will still be funded, but it won't have as much work to do.
01:35The Premier says it will be scaled back, but won't be closed.
01:39The large functions of that office will be curtailed and wound back, now that we defer
01:43that plan in order to get the basics right here in terms of the steel mill.
01:47I think it's a complete waste of money.
01:49It's a complete waste of money.
01:50It's an absolute farce that this government would have spent over $100 million on this office.
01:55It's our hope, of course, that the Office of Hydrogen will continue to operate and that
01:59it will continue to play a role in planning the next phase for Wayella.
02:04That's really important in terms of a green future for that region.
02:09A future that looks a long way off, over the horizon.