Hydrogen Headstart Round 2
Background
In the May 2024 Federal Budget, the Australian Government announced $2 billion of funding for Round 2 of the Hydrogen Headstart program. The Program is designed to fund large-scale hydrogen production projects to accelerate development of Australia’s renewable hydrogen industry, catalyse clean energy industries and help Australia connect to new global hydrogen supply chains.
Round 2 of the Program will be delivered by ARENA. Hydrogen Headstart Round 2 follows the completion of Hydrogen Headstart Round 1, with further detail on successful funding recipients available here.
About the program
The Objectives of Hydrogen Headstart Round 2 are to:
- Produce renewable hydrogen at scale in Australia, facilitating an accelerated pathway to the technical and commercial viability of renewable hydrogen production and use, in alignment with the priority use cases and goals of the National Hydrogen Strategy;
- Support domestic decarbonisation, build industry capability and provide for new economic opportunities in our manufacturing and export industries;
- Provide price discovery and transparency in relation to the current and projected economics for renewable hydrogen (and derivative product) technologies;
- Reduce barriers for future deployments through developing construction expertise, skilled labour, intellectual property, developing supply chains and attracting key equipment manufacturers and private sector capital (debt, equity and offtake); and
- Facilitate knowledge sharing throughout industry to assist with maturing the Australian renewable hydrogen industry.
Funding under the Program will be provided in the form of the Headstart Production Credit (HPC), being support provided per unit of production over a 10-year period of operations. Up to $2 billion of funding is available under Hydrogen Headstart Round 2.
Consultation
In July 2025, ARENA conducted a consultation process for Round 2 of the Program, including publishing a Consultation Paper which detailed the proposed parameters for the Program.
Stakeholder feedback, along with learnings from Round 1 of Hydrogen Headstart, informed the design of the final Program parameters contained in the Program Guidelines.
How it works
- The Program Guidelines (the Guidelines) detail the competitive process that will be used to assess projects under the Program.
- The Program will use a two-stage, time-bound competitive process, consisting of:
- an initial Expression of Interest (EOI) phase, open to all eligible applicants; and
- a subsequent Full Application phase, open to applicants shortlisted at the EOI phase.
- Applicants should review the Guidelines to ensure all eligibility criteria are met before preparing an EOI application.
- Further detail on how to submit an EOI application under the Program can also be found on the ‘How to apply’ tab, with key dates for submitting an EOI detailed on the ‘Observe the key dates’ tab.
- Program Guidelines
Contact us
Email hydrogenheadstart@arena.gov.au with any questions relating to Hydrogen Headstart Round 2
Register your interest to receive further updates on the Program via email
How to apply
Applicants should refer to the Guidelines for further information on the Program, including eligibility requirements and detail on preparing an application:
Expression of Interest applications must be submitted by the EOI Due Date. Applications can be submitted online through ARENANet, by navigating to the Hydrogen Headstart Round 2 application form:
The Guidelines detail all mandatory attachments to an Expression of Interest application. Relevant templates can be found below:
Questions?
All questions should be addressed to hydrogenheadstart@arena.gov.au. Any frequently asked questions may be anonymised and collated into a Frequently Asked Questions document and published on ARENA’s website.
Key dates for the Program are outlined below. For more details, refer to the Program Guidelines.
- EOI Open Date: Friday 10 October 2025
- EOI Due Date: Monday 8 December 2025, at 5:00 PM (AEDT)
The dates represent the current timetable for the Program. ARENA retains the right to amend proposed timelines or any element of the Program at its discretion.
