New Report Launched: Hydrogen and E-fuels: the right choice for Tasmania?

Report can be downloaded from The Tree Projects' website: https://www.thetreeprojects.com/hydrogen

What does this have to do with forests?

Forest biomass is needed to turn hydrogen into e-fuels, and both of the proposed projects claim they will use waste from plantations. 

However, there is only enough waste materials from plantations to meet 50% of these facilities' needs.

What does this mean for native forests?

There are simply not enough sustainable sources of biomass to feed these facilities. We concerned that the additional biomass will come from native forests, where government subsidies already create a cheap supply of low-quality woodchips.

What does this mean for the climate?

We need to take urgent action on climate change. While green hydrogen could have a limited role in reducing our emissions, we need to make sure that an e-fuel industry does not expand native forest logging. A huge amount of emissions come from native forest logging. 

The best climate solution is that our forests are protected.

What other issues are there?

These two facilities will use a lot of energy. Over 50% of the energy is lost in the process of converting renewable energy to e-fuels. Around 260 new wind turbines will be needed to power these plants.

We are 100% supportive of wind farms and renewable energy, however all developments do have some impact on the environment. We are much better off using our renewable energy to power local industries in Tasmania, rather than wasting it in inefficient processes to create e-fuels and sending it off overseas.