Hiringa Energy updated visitors on its green hydrogen refuelling network, officially launched in April 2024, with stations in Wiri, Te Rapa and Palmerston North. These, plus the final station in Tauriko, set to come online in June, make up phase one of the network.

All stations are self-service with 24/7 operations support. The stations are designed, first and foremost, to refuel trucks, with a throughput capability of 60 trucks per day. TR Group customers will benefit from a capped price of $16.50/kg. “It’s the cheapest green hydrogen available globally. We make it here; we know what our input costs are,” says head of new business, Ryan McDonald. This is comparable to 90c–$1/kWh electric charging and roughly $3.30/L diesel.

Ryan says 24 stations are in planning, with a target date of 2030. Hiringa is currently securing land and getting agreements in place for stations in Whangārei, Blenheim, Christchurch and Taranaki.

“Our next-generation sites will have solar power connected as well, so we’re securing land for that too. The sites will have five times more hydrogen production capability to meet ramping up demand in the future,” he says.

Hiringa’s stations are designed to fuel trucks back to back, meaning no waiting between fills for the system to repressurise. “This is world- leading. We’re not doing a science project; we’re here because commercial operators want to run hydrogen fuel cell trucks and have to fill them,” Ryan says.

CTO and co-founder Dan Kahn says Hiringa has taken “the Russian tractor approach. They’re not the fanciest stations, actually pretty basic, but they work and are designed to keep working. They’re designed for this industry.”

Hiringa has designed its stations to meet current and future demand. Production engineer Rachel Hopkinson says each of the current site’s 1MW electrolyser can produce up to 440kg of hydrogen per day and stationary storage for 1500kg of hydrogen (or 2.5 days’ supply). Each site has space to double capacity.

“Even though our model is around production on-site, our mobile storage unit creates redundancy in case of maintenance or technical issue,” she says.

“Our production is decoupled from demand,” says Dan. “We have a sophisticated forecasting algorithm to adjust the system as more trucks are added to the network. We’ll always have an overproduction capability.”

Ryan makes the case for hydrogen in heavy transport. “Refuelling with hydrogen transmits electrons as a molecule. A single hydrogen dispenser is the equivalent of a 3500kW electric charger. We never try to discredit other technologies. They all have their places, but hydrogen is best when you need to arrive, fill up and go.”