4.1.1 Malaysian Hydrogen Economy Roadmap

Similarly, South Korea’s government allocates USD 22 billion for to establish a public and private Hydrogen vehicle industry ecosystem by 2022. Large government subsidies are allocated for the fuel cell stations to keep the price low to attract more users on board. South Korea released the Hydrogen Economy Roadmap of Korea and the National Roadmap of Hydrogen Technology Development in 2019, setting a national target to become a leader in hydrogen technology (Hydrogen Roadmap Korea, 2018).

Cost reduction will be the key enabler for hydrogen energy to be competitive as a replacement for conventional energy resources. The current strategy to reduce the cost of hydrogen energy in private and public transport undertaken by most countries is by scaling up its deployment. This is in accordance with the strategy promoted by the Hydrogen Council that says “…scale-up will be the biggest driver of cost reduction” (Hydrogen Council, 2020).

Australia’s National Hydrogen Strategy 2019 aims to produce low-cost hydrogen that increases its cost-competitiveness in the global market. Australia is already developing HySTRA project to supply blue hydrogen to Japan. Similar hydrogen supply chain projects are being developed for South Korea, China and California. Hydrogen hubs are developed in Port of Hastings, Victoria, Australia, with centralised infrastructure for cost-effective hydrogen production from brown coal and export to Japan.

ASEAN has good potential a green hydrogen producer because it has huge renewable energy resources, which includes 220 GW of wind energy, 158 GW of hydropower, 61 GW of biomass and 200 GW of geothermal (Li, 2019). However, the hydrogen supply chain and technologies are still expensive depending on different usage and pathway of hydrogen supply.

Indonesia has started their fuel cell development for 15 years. In 2019, a roadmap released by Badan Pengkajian dan Penerapan Teknologi (BPPT) showed that Indonesia aims to develop various fuel cell applications, including FC vehicles, drones and forklifts (Dewi, 2019). BPPT also collaborated with Toshiba to deploy autonomous hydrogen energy supply systems, with the aim to establish a hydrogen system for transportation in Indonesia by 2024 (Toshiba, 2018). Indonesia has chosen to produce hydrogen through biomass gasification (Dewi, 2019).

While our neighbouring countries are actively venturing into the hydrogen economy, it is timely for Malaysia to develop its own hydrogen economy roadmap.

4.1.1 Malaysian Hydrogen Economy Roadmap

Since many of the action plans for the deployment of hydrogen energy and fuel cell technology recommended by the 2006 Solar Energy, Hydrogen Energy and Fuel Cells roadmap for Malaysia were included only in the 9th Malaysia Plan but not in the subsequent 10th and 11h Malaysia Plans except for the R&D activities, a second Hydrogen Roadmap, “The 75Blueprint for the Fuel Cells Industry in Malaysia” was developed by the ASM in 2017. The Hydrogen Roadmap crafted the strategies and action plans to be implemented in the 12th and successive Malaysia Plans. The aim of the updated Hydrogen Roadmap in the Blueprint is not to replace completely the existing total energy mix and the five fuel mix for electricity generation consisting of three fossil fuels (gas, coal and oil), hydro and renewable energy but to complement the energy mix by including hydrogen officially as the Sixth Fuel, so that it is better equipped to face the challenges of global warming and climate change with less carbon emissions from hydrogen. 75