STAGNATION?:

Hysata, a company using technology developed at the University of Wollongong, said its patented capillary-fed electrolysis cells achieve 95 percent efficiency, meaning little wastage, beating by about one-quarter the levels of current technology.

The achievement, published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications, could see the Morrison government's so-called hydrogen stretch goal of $2 a kilogram to make the fuel competitive reached as soon as 2025, the Hysata chief executive, Paul Barrett, said. "We've gone from 75 percent [efficiency] to 95 percent--it's really a giant leap for the electrolysis industry," Barrett said.

Renewable energy from sources such as wind and solar is making big inroads into the power sector, supplying more than a third of eastern Australia's electricity in the final three months of 2021. However, decarbonizing industry and some transport, such as trucking, is likely to be tougher unless fuels such as hydrogen become much cheaper.

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