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Comment by BLKNSLVR | Hacker News Reader

What I've read lines up with the three points you've made, so I tend to agree. However:

What we're seeing in Australia is federal government support for hydrogen power after over a decade of strong resistance to alternatives (specifically renewables: wind and solar), and no support for electric vehicles at all. I'm definitely mixing together a few different areas of power / electricity / energy here, but the fact the Australian government is seizing upon hydrogen just makes my cynical mind assume that hydrogen manufacture and usage fits better with the status quo and therefore is easier to understand by those in power - ie. centralised / consolidated control as opposed to more consumer-level control.

This could be Hydrogen's killer feature in the end.

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the infrastructure bill working its way through the US includes a few $billion in subsidies for hydrogen fuel, too.

there’s a couple takes on why, but the most charitable one is that solar/wind/batteries have enough momentum that they don’t need subsidies, and govt views energy diversity as a valuable thing and is subsidizing hydrogen to achieve that.

There is the possibility that Australia is simply correct in their assessment. They're a long ways away from both Silicon Valley and Brussels, and may be acting as an independent entity that is free from external influences.

Australia is a major suck-up to the US, the government of Australia is infringing on it's citizens freedom and releasing more co2 into the atmosphere per capita than any other country.

I doubt physical distance has much to do with it. Australia is closer to China than the US, for example.

Australia gets a LOT of sunshine and has a LOT of empty space, which is conducive to being solar friendly. Australia also exports a lot of coal and a lot or iron ore (which is then processed using coal-generated heat), which is conducive to promoting its value and suppressing any alternatives.

Electric vehicles, however, work towards solving a specific national security problem for Australia in it's "domestic fuel security"[0][1][2][3]. A problem of which the UK is kindly highlighting the importance.

[0]: https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/a...

[1]: https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/australia-must-fast-track-...

[2]: https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/key-enablers/7790-what-s-n...

[3]: https://www.drive.com.au/news/government-scrambles-to-mainta...

In this case it's mental distance. It's not be affected by the politics of other countries nearly as much as others.

One big idea in Australia is the possibility of exporting hydrogen. It might be a factor on their thinking.

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