Survey finds widespread support for hydrogen

By David Norman, CEO, Future Fuels CRC

To better understand public opinion on using hydrogen, Future Fuels Cooperative Research Centre engaged the University of Queensland to conduct a national survey and it showed widespread support for producing and using hydrogen both in Australia and for export.

The national survey of more than 3,000 Australians found that 65 per cent of Australians already support using hydrogen as a fuel and that rose to 90 per cent once respondents were provided with more facts about hydrogen and its uses.

The survey shows that Australians are already very positive about the economic opportunities that hydrogen energy could bring, including jobs and benefits for regional communities.

For Australians, safety remains their number one priority and these results support the development of hydrogen with a world-class safety culture that is now being created by Australian industry, governments and regulators. These results support the activities happening now in every state to develop Australia’s hydrogen industry.

• 65 per cent already support using hydrogen as a fuel, with 32 per cent undecided. After finding out more about hydrogen this rose to 90 per cent support with 7 per cent undecided and only 3 per cent opposed. • Support for hydrogen was broad-based with similar results across all states and main political party affiliations, with no significant differences, showing broad bi-partisan support. • Respondents who currently use natural gas at home were slightly more supportive of hydrogen than respondents who did not, but

Future Fuels CRC CEO David Norman.

the effect size was small which suggests that support for hydrogen is not related to current use of natural gas. • Awareness about hydrogen is growing, with 40 per cent of respondents having already heard about hydrogen in the media, 27 per cent had heard about hydrogen production projects in Australia, and 21 per cent about blending natural gas and hydrogen for domestic use. • 75 per cent of respondents believe climate change is already happening, which is an increase from an earlier 2018 ARENA survey (70.8 per cent).

The survey also shows that although only a small proportion of Australians reported being confident about their knowledge of hydrogen, there is clearly a growing awareness of hydrogen as an alternative energy source. It also showed that providing members of the public with factual information about hydrogen helped to strengthen support for those who had previously been undecided.

This survey is just one example of our research to understand and build public acceptance and social license that will be vital to enabling this new industry.

You can find the latest on all Future Fuels CRC research at www.futurefuelscrc.com