Hydrogen for planes New Zealand’s big chance
Grant Bradley reports on work in NZ on a lower-cost way to decarbonise aviation
Work continues in New Zealand on what could be the cheapest way to decarbonise aviation. Synthetic hydrogen is one option for airlines, and while expensive to make now it could be a longterm solution to not only power aircraft but be part of building up the country’s energy resilience.
Marsden Point fuel terminal operator Channel Infrastructure (CHI), and Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) are eyeing the development of a green hydrogen manufacturing facility in Northland.
They say it could produce synthetic sustainable aviation fuel (e-Saf ) that could supply about 60 million litres a year — equivalent to more than 3 per cent of the preCovid annual jet fuel requirements for New Zealand’s aviation sector.
While Air New Zealand is also looking at battery technology for small regional flights and traditional Saf for long haul flights, hydrogen is an option.
The airline’s chief sustainability officer, Kiri Hannifin, says hydrogen will be important for the whole of the economy to decarbonise but it’s very intensive to make.
“You need a lot of energy to make green hydrogen so we need a bigger, broader grid.”
Business NZ Energy Council executive director Tina Schirr says the development of green hydrogen could solve problems across the energy sector.
New Zealand has a high share of renewable energy in its national grid, which enables realistic decarbonisation using green hydrogen.
Once the current projects under construction are commissioned, the country will have 90 per cent renewable electricity.
“This places us in an ideal space to enable green hydrogen projects, domestically and for export,” Schirr says.
The role for hydrogen domestically is in the hard-to-abate sectors — aviation fuels, shipping fuels, heavy transport, fertiliser production and potentially “green” steel/aluminium. “It’s not a question of electricity or hydrogen, we need both. We should electrify everything we possibly can and let hydrogen and other fuels do a great option for the things we can’t directly electrify and where batteries are not viable.”
Schirr says aviation is critical to New Zealand’s economic wellbeing. If the country doesn’t move towards decarbonising aviation, it may jeopardise our clean, green image in the tourism and export sectors.
The global pressure is on, she says. This includes the European Border Adjustment Mechanism and mandates for Saf both indicating increasing pressure for shipping and aviation.
The European Commission has proposed a Saf blending mandate for fuel supplied to European Union airports, with minimum shares of Saf gradually increasing from 2 per cent in 2025 to 63 per cent by 2050.
Hydrogen has a key role to play in decarbonising the aviation sector, both initially as a key input to producing e-Saf (a drop in fuel that can be blended up to 50 per cent with fossil jet fuel) and in the longer term as a direct fuel.
Schirr says producing some e-Saf within New Zealand has benefits for fuel security, will create jobs, and stimulate associated industries.
The cost of not progressing decarbonisation initiatives within our borders is huge — both in terms of impact on those key tourism and export sectors, but also in terms of the massive offsets we will be paying out for not meeting decarbonisation commitments.
Offset payments will be heading offshore to support other nations’ decarbonisation projects.
“Why not get the benefits here directly?”
Green hydrogen can be produced from curtailed renewable energy (to monetise otherwise “spilled” capacity) to make e-Saf, which can be stored and transported like conventional aviation fuel and blended to reduce emissions.
New large hydrogen projects can also unlock new power generation, with electricity being the key input for hydrogen. Basically, anything that can de-risk new generation projects, increase supply and reduce power prices, which in turn is good for hydrogen production.
Good examples out there: The NZ Hydrogen Aviation Consortium (with Airbus, Christchurch Airport, Hiringa, Fabrum, Fortescue and Air New Zealand) is leading the way, starting with solar PV and electrolysers to produce green hydrogen for aviation and other users. Hydrogen production is flexible.
“This means it is ideal to provide large-scale demand response — a critical ingredient for New Zealand and at a significantly lower cost than the [now ditched] Onslow pumped hydro scheme.”
A “back of the envelope” calculation shows Onslow was last estimated at $16 billion to build to manage NZ’s dry-year problem.
The 600 MW Southern Green Hydrogen project is estimated at $2b and would provide around a third of New Zealand’s total dryyear requirement.
“That would come up roughly to $6b if we wanted to cover the [entire] dry-year problem. Still massively cheaper and it also produces hydrogen for export so makes money separately.”
Airports and logistics operators can also use hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and equipment to reduce emissions on the ground.