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Australia’s former Chief Scientist named chair of Hysata’s Global Advisory Council

Alan on balcony, by Mark Fitzgerald 2021

Hysata has today welcomed Dr Alan Finkel AC as Chair of the company’s new Global Advisory Council where he will counsel Hysata on bringing its technology to market.

Dr Finkel is Australia’s former Chief Scientist, a role in which he spearheaded the development of the National Hydrogen Strategy and the independent review into the future of the National Electricity Market.

Dr Finkel also served as Special Adviser to the Australian Government on Low Emissions Technology where he was instrumental in establishing seven key international partnerships to accelerate the development and deployment of low emissions technologies. He was also Chair of the Technology Investment Advisory Council which provided advice to government on low emissions technology investment priorities.

Dr Finkel will hand-pick a team of international experts in science, technology and policy to make up the remaining council positions. The council will be tasked with providing input into Hysata’s strategy for delivering its electrolyser globally into multiple customer segments including steelmaking, heavy transport, and the chemical industry.

“Green hydrogen fills the gaps where electricity falls short,” said Dr Finkel. “It could be in transport to power trains and trucks and long-distance aeroplanes, or it could be as a chemical to replace metallurgical coal in steelmaking and fertiliser production.”

“The challenge is to minimise the waste when using precious renewable electricity to produce green hydrogen. The reason I am so excited by Hysata is that they have the highest efficiency electrolyser design and an expert team to take it to commercial reality,” Dr Finkel concluded.

It’s another major announcement for Hysata, which recently secured support from renowned global investors in its oversubscribed Series A funding round of $42.5 million AUD.

“Our mission is to lead the world in green hydrogen production through our high system efficiency electrolyser technology (41.5 kWh/kg). We are immensely proud to have such an esteemed Chair of our Global Advisory Council in Dr Finkel. His expertise in renewable energy and hydrogen is unparalleled, his international reputation and relationships are well known and we welcome his support and guidance as we accelerate towards commercialisation” said Paul Barrett, CEO of Hysata.

“We have been making tremendous progress on our technology , building our team and interacting with hundreds of major customers globally. The next phase of work involves scaling up our technology and deployment into pilot projects as we ready the company to get to commercial scale. We look forward to working with Dr Finkel to deliver our era-defining electrolyser technology,” Barrett concluded.

Dr Finkel has had a distinguished career as a neuroscientist, inventor, researcher, educator, philanthropist and policy advisor.

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