Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Hansard source

Last Friday I had the pleasure of representing the Australian government at Lake Cargelligo, in my electorate, to announce $9.8 million towards a $20 million project to produce hydrogen from solar energy. It's a partnership between Graphite Energy, Toshiba International and MGA Thermal that will further progress the work that Graphite Energy have been doing over the last decade in Lake Cargelligo where they can transfer energy from the sun, using the medium of graphite, to generate steam for the production ultimately, hopefully, of hydrogen. They are small, individual modular containers that will produce hydrogen on site as it's needed. Hydrogen is a very difficult gas to transport around, so to be able to produce hydrogen onsite is a great advantage.

This is happening in regional Australia. It's happening in a small country town. Once again, it shows that regional Australia is leading the way when it comes to the innovation that's required to reduce emissions and help make our environment a more healthy place. Lake Cargelligo already has a very substantial industrial part of their town, with cutting-edge technologies and modern factories. This is going to add to the work that's being done and help bring Australia to a cleaner future.

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