Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A couple of weeks ago, I travelled to Horsham to meet with an innovative young farmer, Thomas Blair. Tom is a third-generation farmer and runs Blair Farms with his father and grandfather. Tom was born and bred into innovation. He also lived overseas, in Europe, for several years and brought back a passion for clean energy. Tom is pioneering a renewable energy project which could be a model to help farmers reduce carbon emissions, save on energy costs and contribute to the nation's transition to renewable energy technologies.

The multimillion dollar project aims to produce green hydrogen using solar energy to power the farm all year round. Tom showed me the massive roof line on his farm's sheds, where the new solar installation will be. The next step is to produce green hydrogen through electrolysis using solar energy. The long-term plan is to transition to hydrogen fuel cells for use in heavy agricultural machinery in order to cut out hundreds of thousands of litres of diesel every year. Tom enthusiastically told me about his intention to use contaminated water to produce hydrogen, which is an exciting opportunity for farmers to recycle contaminated water into energy.

The project has received broad support from industry, and the state government has backed it with a $250,000 grant. I'm eager to continue working with Tom to offer the full support of the federal government as the project continues to gain pace.