Advantages of green hydrogen

To create electricity, hauwai kākāriki can be used to power ‘fuel cells’. Fuel cells act like batteries and can power vehicles, such as this hydrogen-powered bus in Auckland(external link). A fuel cell vehicle has electric motors like an EV, but it has a hydrogen tank and a fuel cell instead of batteries. The waste products from a fuel cell are heat and pure water.

Once hauwai kākāriki becomes cheap enough, it is likely it will be used to replace coal and oil in industrial processes like steel making and concrete production, and to power larger-scale fuel cells in heavy transport like ships, trains and trucks where enough batteries would be too big and heavy to be viable. As it becomes cheaper still, we might see it as everyday fuel for cars, heating and even supporting the national grid.

A move to hauwai kākāriki would also result in more jobs, investment opportunities, and export revenue. Instead of Aotearoa importing much of our energy (such as coal and oil) as we do today, we are well placed to not only serve our own energy needs but become a net exporter of energy. 

There is a growing interest from world leaders in producing hauwai kākāriki as fuel to lower global emissions. As part of their Carbon Zero 2050 goal, the New Zealand government is funding the research and development of hauwai kākāriki through their Advanced Energy Technology Platform (AETP) and other science funding routes as a viable fuel source to decarbonise our economy. Other parts of the world investing in hauwai kākāriki include Australia, Germany, the USA, the EU, Chile, Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea and Canada. 

Hauwai kākāriki produced at scale could provide great resilience to our domestic energy supply, helping support electrical production in ‘dry years’. It has great potential to be produced locally on a small scale too, and so becomes a great choice to support remote communities, or when a natural disaster or emergency cuts off access to centralised power sources.