Resource-poor Japan has stepped up the search, research, and development of new energy sources following the Fukushima disaster in 2011. In the wake of the accident, Japan shut down almost all its nuclear reactors, and has spent billions of US dollars more on imports of oil, coal, and liquefied natural gas (LNG) since then. A large LNG and coal exporter close to Japan’s shores, Australia, now aims to export hydrogen —a renewable energy source to help fuel Japan’s ambitions to boost the use of hydrogen in power supply and hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles. Hydrogen can be produced with excess renewable energy that would otherwise be wasted, and transported like natural gas, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) says, noting that two Australian projects are already being investigated with the goal of exporting hydrogen to power the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Japan—the world’s biggest LNG importer and among the top […]