Contributed by Ms Alana Barlow, National Hydrogen Commercialisation Manager, SAPL Hydrogen Dept

15 June 2022
Australia

On 15 June 2022, representing SAPL, I had the privilege to meet with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Chris Bowen in Gladstone.

At the height of Australia’s “energy crisis”, and AEMO taking control of the National Electricity Market, it was a coup to be speaking to Australia’s most important decision makers at that time. Sumitomo’s hydrogen project at Rio Tinto Yarwun was at the forefront of discussion, as the Prime Minister and members of his Cabinet toured the Yarwun refinery facility just that morning. Decarbonisation of Rio Tinto’s aluminium operations in Gladstone (two refineries and one smelter) is a hot topic in Gladstone, with Rio Tinto recently announcing a RFP process to procure 4 gigawatts of renewable energy to power those assets into the green future.

The Prime Minister and Minister Bowen were glad to hear of Sumitomo’s support and involvement in Rio Tinto’s decarbonisation plans, and the progress being made on the hydrogen calcination project. They reaffirmed their support for the $70M Hydrogen Hubs Funding, of which Sumitomo and Rio Tinto were successful applicants.

I later conversed with Ed Husic, Minister for Industry and Science (and a Blacktown local like myself), who was very excited to hear about Sumitomo’s hydrogen initiatives – even exclaiming “oh my god” when I finished listing out our achievements to date!

I intend to travel to Canberra in the near future to meet with the Department of Industry, Science and Resources and Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water to brief them on our projects.

A selfie with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese