Hiringa: green hydrogen refuelling station opened in Wiri near Auckland

The company Hiringa Energy officially opened a hydrogen refuelling station in Wiri, in south Auckland, on 23 April 2024 (RNZ described it on 24 April as opening “yesterday”). The station, whose dispensers stand at Waitomo service stations, is one of three stations in the Hiringa network on the North Island – alongside Te Rapa in Hamilton and Palmerston North; a fourth was to be built in Tauranga. The company describes the network as the first green hydrogen refuelling network for heavy transport in Australasia, but RNZ does not confirm that wording, and in the same week the company Halcyon also opened its own hydrogen station for heavy vehicles in Wiri.

What the station offers

According to RNZ, the Wiri station can supply up to 60 trucks, and the hydrogen is produced on site from renewable electricity. Filling a tank takes about 15 minutes. At the time of opening only two trucks in the country could use the pumps, which shows how early this market is.

Plans and delays

The CSIRO profile from August 2021 described three phases: eight stations in phase one, a further 16 stations in phase two (by 2025) and more than 100 stations by 2030. These deadlines should be treated as outdated intentions: in April 2024 three stations were operating and a fourth was only being planned.

Source of hydrogen

In Wiri hydrogen is produced on site by electrolysis. The key project for the network is Kapuni in Taranaki, carried out with Ballance Agri-Nutrients, which is to supply hydrogen to the Hiringa network (financial close: see the update).

The place of biogas

Hydrogen from electrolysis is not biohydrogen, but stations such as Wiri create infrastructure that hydrogen from biogas could also use in future (e.g. after pyrolysis). In New Zealand the more realistic pathway for biogas remains biomethane and compressed gas for trucks.

What this means for Poland

In Poland hydrogen refuelling stations are developing slowly, and the role of biomethane in heavy transport (bioCNG, bioLNG) is regarded as closer to deployment. The Hiringa example shows that even in a country with a very high share of renewables in electricity generation, building a hydrogen network is a multi-year process dependent on public funding.