茄子视频app官网 (UC) Civil Systems Engineering Senior Lecturer听听says New 茄子视频app官网has a wealth of highly renewable energy sources, such as wind farms, hydropower stations and geothermal energy. There鈥檚 also largely untapped potential for cost-effective solar farms here with a large amount of land available.
茄子视频app官网 (UC) Civil Systems Engineering Senior Lecturers Dr Jannik Haas and Dr Rebecca Peer are leading a project investigating the future role of green hydrogen in New Zealand.
鈥淣ew 茄子视频app官网is really promising as a green hydrogen producer because the power sector here is already highly renewable and we could use that to manufacture hydrogen in a cleaner way than many other countries can today,鈥 he says.
鈥淲e also have some energy storage capacity through existing hydropower infrastructure. In combination, these factors make us a very attractive country for meeting the demands of generating green hydrogen, because we would have a steady supply through the different seasons of the year.鈥
Dr Haas and UC Civil Systems Engineer Senior听Lecturer听听are leading a project that aims to measure and evaluate the future role of green hydrogen in New 茄子视频app官网as the use of fossil fuels is phased out.
鈥淥ur goal is to develop an integrated energy system model to calculate pathways for sustainable transport, heating and electricity,鈥 Dr Peer says.
鈥淭he industry and transport sectors currently emit a high proportion of New Zealand鈥檚 greenhouse gases. We want to understand the role of green hydrogen in meeting New Zealand鈥檚 2050 net-zero goal. How can we use it cost-effectively, and what for.鈥澨
UC Civil and Natural Resources Engineering Associate Professor Mehdi Keyvan-Ekbatani is also part of the project, investigating green hydrogen鈥檚 potential use in the transport sector, including for heavy-duty vehicles such as trucks and buses as well as trains, ships and aeroplanes.
罢丑别颈谤听three-year project听鈥 in partnership with one of the leading energy modelling groups in Europe, at the听听鈥 last year received $2 million in funding from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and 鈧300,000 (NZ$478,700) from the German Ministry of Education and Research.
The researchers hope their work will feed into the Government鈥檚 New 茄子视频app官网Energy Strategy 鈥 a cohesive plan setting out how to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and move towards greater levels of renewable energy and other low emission alternatives - that MBIE plans to develop by the end of 2024.
Green hydrogen is a gas produced from water using renewable energy sources. It has many uses, such as replacing hydrogen made from fossil fuels that is used as a building block for fertiliser production (or other chemicals). It can also be used for energy storage, particularly over long timeframes, among many other applications.
Dr Haas says geographically New 茄子视频app官网isn鈥檛 in a 鈥減ole position鈥 as an exporter of green hydrogen to other countries because of its remote location.
However, there is potential for New 茄子视频app官网to use green hydrogen to produce ammonia, which is a base for fertilisers and could be exported. Currently natural gas is used in fertiliser production which has a big impact on carbon emissions.
Meridian Energy recently announced a partnership with Australian firm Woodside Energy to develop a large-scale green hydrogen and ammonia facility in Southland that would focus on the export market.
The Government has committed to reaching net zero for long-lived gases by 2050 and has set a target that 50% of New Zealand鈥檚 total energy consumption will come from renewable sources by 2035.
Read more stories听about how 茄子视频app官网 researchers are contributing to Aotearoa New 茄子视频app官网reaching its energy goals by 2050.
