Premier Peter Malinauskas is being challenged over whether hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars will be squandered on “a hydrogen vanity project” at Whyalla after major energy firms abandoned the technology.

Speaking during a visit to Whyalla on Friday, Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia said respected industry leaders like Origin Energy and Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s Fortescue were exiting hydrogen due to cost and complexity.

He accused Labor of gambling $593m on a government-owned and operated hydrogen power plant on Whyalla’s outskirts, without lowering electricity bills.

Asked whether the Liberals would abandon the project if elected, Mr Tarzia urged full transparency over the project’s costings, which have remained fixed since first announced in early 2021.

“We want to see the updated costings, the updated modelling. What does Peter Malinauskas think that he knows better than Twiggy and Origin?” he said.

“We know that these are respected industry leaders that are exiting hydrogen due to the cost, but also the complexity.

“We’ve got real concerns about the hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds that are going to be spent on what effectively might become a hydrogen vanity project. We don’t want this to be a white elephant.”
Origin Energy on Thursday declared it was abandoning ambitious plans to develop hydrogen, scuttling a proposed $207m Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub project because of uncertainty around the “pace and timing of development of the hydrogen market” and the risks associated with developing capital-intensive projects of this nature.

It came after billionaire Andrew Forrest earlier this year scaled back his own green hydrogen targets at his firm, Fortescue.

From The Advertiser 4/10/24. Story by Paul Starick.