Mr BAYLEY - I'm interested in new technologies and the state of play regarding hydrogen powering of vessels. I note that the annual report says TasPorts entered into a research partnership with Blue Economy CRC to assess the maturity of hydrogen- and ammonia-powered vessel technology and examine any new term market. A couple of things. Was that a financial arrangement with Blue Economy CRC and what are the terms of that? Do you have any insights into when we are likely to see this kind of technology at TasPorts?
Mr DONALD - I'll take the answer in two parts. I'll take the question on notice with respect to the financial contribution as I'm not across the level of detail and commitment in that regard. In terms of hydrogen or alternative fuel vessels, we think that will occur in the future at some point for the world, including for Tasmania. We don't intend to be a ground-breaker in that sphere. We would perhaps be more inclined to be a fast follower of proven technology and there's a lot of debate and speculation around the safety and ongoing asset management requirements for alternative fuels.
Everyone I've talked to has a different view or perspective. Sometimes that view or perspective is perhaps informed by the employment or the commercial arrangements from the proponent I'm talking to, and everyone's got their own agenda and perspective. We know each of the regulators nationally and globally are all looking at what safety requirements are going to have to be put in place.
Mr BAYLEY - Do you know what sort of infrastructure requirements are therefore likely to be needed to accommodate these kinds of vessels?
Mr DONALD - Not yet.
Mr BAYLEY - You're not doing any planning in that space?
Mr DONALD - I would imagine that it probably won't be that dissimilar to sort of a hazardous fuel facility, but we expect that we'll need to be doing some pretty detailed work with WorkSafe and the EPA. Particularly if we're looking to put alternative fuels in the vicinity of existing hazardous fuel facilities. There would be minimum spacing or set-off zones and minimum infrastructure protections between different pipelines, as an example, our manifolds.
Mr BAYLEY - Are you doing any of that work now or am I hearing that you're really just going to wait and see what other ports do in other parts of the world?
Mr DONALD - The arrangements we would put in place with any proponents that express interest through our market sounding exercise are that we would put the obligation on them to demonstrate to us what is required. It's not something that we plan to invest in ourselves. Our role would be to assess.
Mr BAYLEY - Just to extend this, the latest statement of corporate intents sets out the goal to have completed the business case for the Port of Bell Bay renewable energy hub, and annual report suggests this is only a third of the way through or thereabouts. Do you have any update on the estimated completion of this and will it be public?
Mr DONALD - Certainly we will make public our plans and our commitments. The number of proponents we are dealing with around renewable opportunities in Bell Bay is significant. We have a small but very busy team of people fielding inquiries and meeting with proponents every day. The opportunities are far more immense than the capacity of land and the port.
I often talk about it being like a game of Tetris and every one of the proponents is at a different stage in their life cycle and their investment life cycle. Some within months might be ready to make a commercial commitment that would then enable design and construction and then operation. Others are probably three to four or five years away. Some of them are around hydrogen and ammonia.
We've also been in discussion with proponents around oil decommissioning. Then there is on-land wind farm proponents and offshore wind farm proponents. If you add all of those together, the Port of Bell bay could probably only cope with one-twentieth of the opportunity. The commercial reality of which proponent is going to commit and provide the best outcome for Tasmania is something that we'll need to continue to consider and in what timeframe. That's why I probably crassly described it as a game of Tetris.
