Energy minister Chris Bowen said he was confident that the gas-fired Hunter Power Project would be able to be converted to green hydrogen for $700 million.
Snowy Hydro is presently working out how to fulfil the government's brief, which includes introducing green hydrogen into the plant's fuel mix as soon as possible. It also wants the plant to be operating on 100 per cent green hydrogen by 2030.
Mr Bowen said on Wednesday that he was confident that the budget and timeframes that Labor committed to while in opposition would be met.
"We are working very closely with Snowy, as you'd expect, to implement our election commitments," Mr Bowen said during a visit to the Lower Hunter. [Green hydrogen will be introduced] in line with the election commitment we made, which is to match best practice around the world."
"We were very clear 10 per cent (hydrogen), then 30 per cent and then best practice to get as high as possible as quickly as possible."
But Mr Bowen was less interested in endorsing the former federal government's commitment to provide the Port of Newcastle with $100 million to support the development of the hydrogen sector at the Port of Newcastle.
Mr Bowen said the Labor government supported the growth of the hydrogen sector but would not commit to the funding.
"We are big supporters of the hydrogen industry," he said. "Obviously, as you would expect, we are assessing all of the commitments made by the previous government and we will have more to say in a budget context in October," he said.
Offshore wind is a key plank of the government's commitment to having 82 per cent of Australia's energy needs met by renewables by 2030.
It announced six preferred offshore wind zones including the Hunter.
The Hunter coast will be the second zone opened for public consultation following Gippsland, which began last week. The government estimates the Gippsland project will have the potential to provide 20 per cent of Victoria's energy needs.
Mr Bowen declined to say when consultation for the Hunter coast project would commence, however, he admitted that public awareness about the technology was not where it needed to be.
"We've got work to do to explain the benefits of offshore wind," he said.
"We will be consulting with commercial and recreational fishers, with environmental groups and business groups as part of that process."
Oceanex is presently developing plans for a $10billion, 2000 megawatt windfarm off the Hunter's coast.
Dubbed the Novocastrian Wind Farm, the project features about 130 turbines located 30 kilometres off the coast.
Oceanex estimates the project, which would be based out of the Port of Newcastle, would create 300 full time jobs over the project's 30 year lifespan.
"I point to the Gippsland as an example of what is possible, where there is very, very strong community support for offshore wind," Mr Bowen said.
"Gippsland has gone through a huge economic change just like the hunter, even more so perhaps.
"Offshore wind is a jobs-rich opportunity. Turbines 10 or 12 or 15 kilometres off our coast move very fast. It's very windy, therefore, they need a lot of maintenance. You need ships to take workers out, you need a port to support the ships.
So there's a lot of jobs to be created in the maintenance of the turbines in the support for that maintenance, as well as being very energy rich.
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