The HRE Act regulates and licences large scale hydrogen and renewable energy projects across South Australia.

The Act ensures a fair and transparent pathway for companies that want to develop hydrogen or renewable energy projects in South Australia while ensuring best practice licencing and regulatory approaches.

Efficient regulatory framework

The Hydrogen and Renewable Energy Act is an efficient, flexible, transparent, and consultative regulatory framework that:

  • licences and regulates the entire lifecycle of renewable energy and hydrogen projects
  • expedites the development of the state’s hydrogen sector and supports delivery of the Hydrogen Jobs Plan
  • maximises the benefits for all South Australians
  • recognises that Aboriginal participation in decision-making is central to South Australia’s clean energy future
  • maintains the government’s commitment to multiple land use. It recognises all other overlapping legal rights over the same land such as pastoral leases, mining tenements and licences
  • ensures proponents effectively address environmental, economic, public safety and social and cultural impacts in line with environment, social and governance requirements
  • delivers investment certainty and security.

Objects of the HRE Act

The objects of the Act, outlined under Section 3 are to:

    (a) facilitate and regulate exploration for, and exploitation of, renewable energy resources
    (b) establish an effective, efficient and flexible regulatory framework for constructing, operating, maintaining and decommissioning renewable energy infrastructure and facilities for generating hydrogen for commercial purposes
    (c) encourage and maintain an appropriate level of competition for access to designated land to enable exploration for, and exploiting of, renewable energy resources
    (d) enable engagement with Aboriginal people to ensure the regulatory framework in this Act maximises beneficial economic, environmental and social impacts and minimises adverse cultural and heritage impacts
    (e) enable engagement with rural and regional communities in relation to hydrogen and renewable energy projects for beneficial economic, environmental and social outcomes for those communities
    (f) facilitate economic prosperity and benefits for the state through the development of an industry for generating hydrogen and renewable energy
    (g) ensure that generating hydrogen and the exploitation of renewable energy resources is ecologically sustainable
    (h) facilitate public safety in managing risks inherent in generating hydrogen
    (i) enable appropriate consultation before authorised operations are undertaken
    (j) facilitate the grant of licences that enable hydrogen and renewable energy projects to co-exist, so far as possible, with other land uses
    (k) support the achievement of the following for the state:

(i) competitively priced and reliable renewable energy supply

(ii) economic development of a hydrogen energy industry

(iii) economic development of a net zero carbon emission industry.

What is not included under the HRE Act

The HRE Act will not cover:

  • Small scale, localised renewable energy projects intended for domestic use
  • Power transmission lines associated with the national and local electricity grids
  • Electricity generation from non-renewable resources, including from hydrogen
  • Transmission pipelines (already licenced under the Energy Resources Act 2000), vehicle or any other form of transportation of hydrogen (including maritime vessels)
  • Renewable energy from geothermal sources as defined and licenced under the Energy Resources Act 2000
  • Underground geological storage of hydrogen – this will be licenced under the Energy Resources Act 2000