US president Donald Trump has already done much to revive the global electric vehicle market, and it turns out he’s also helping resuscitate hopes for the green hydrogen sector, and given Australian farmers cause to reassess their dependence on global supply chains.
As has been well documented, Trump’s war on Iran and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz has prompted a surge in petrol and diesel prices. What is less well known is the impact it has had on the global market for fertilisers, and on Australian regions.
It’s caused Australian farmers to think more deeply about their own green energy options – not just the opportunities to host wind and solar farms, but to make home-grown green hydrogen for fertiliser products and diesel replacement, and to reduce their increasingly costly and fraught dependence on international markets.
And that has started to change the conversation about wind and solar projects and what they can do for the community. Rather than just hosting facilities whose product is exported to the big cities and other load centres, farmers are now looking at how they can be used in and benefit regional areas.
It was one of the major themes of the Australian Renewables in Agriculture Conference in Orange last week, attended by more than 400 delegates, that put the other side to some of the nonsense spread in mainstream and social media about the rural push back against the transition to renewables.
