Freddie strutted the stage to a driving bass beat, singing: “Another one bites the dust; Another one bites the dust; And another one gone, and another one gone; Another one bites the dust (yeah)…”

Listening to the news this week about more green hydrogen schemes joining an expanding list of stalled or cancelled projects – despite billions in promised government subsidies – Mercury seems like a latter-day Nostradamus rather than the brilliant musician who was taken too soon.

FALLING

I’m a bit stunned by the speed at which the green dominoes are falling since I wrote an article a couple of weeks ago, published on various sites under the title of “Airheads for Green Hydrogen” or “Green Aluminium? Tell Albo he’s dreaming”.

This referred to Labor’s recently announced plan to put another $2b in subsidies towards the production of green aluminium using green hydrogen as the power source.

This was never going to happen for reasons obvious to anyone with a basic knowledge of physics, chemistry and engineering – let alone economics.

The latest green dream comes on top of $13.4b in production tax credits for “green hydrogen” and critical minerals unveiled in last year’s budget under Labor’s Future Made in Australia policy.

But it doesn’t matter what colour you call it – or however you make it– hydrogen always remains the same colourless, corrosive, explosive gas that claimed 36 lives when Germany’s Hindenburg Airship exploded and burned back in 1937.

A major supporter of the fabled green hydrogen, billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, last year slashed 700 Fortescue Mining jobs and backed away from its plan to produce 15m tonnes of this gas by 2030.

Hot on Twiggy’s heels, Origin Energy dropped out of the major Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub project, citing uncertainty in the market for the alternative fuel.

This came as another major blow to the federal government’s green hydrogen ambitions.

But, to quote another hit from decades past by Bachman Turner Overdriv: “Baby, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet”.

In the past week, we have seen the new Queensland LNP Government refuse to commit $1b towards the much-touted $12.5b Central Queensland Hydrogen project at Gladstone, previously supported by the State-owned Stanwell Corporation and some international backers.

Then, the very next day, BP pulled the plug on its $600m green hydrogen project at Kwinana in Western Australia.

Oops, so much for PM Albanese and Energy Minister Bowen spruiking a “green hydrogen” revolution.

Reality and economics is putting the sword to Labor’s propaganda campaign.

According to the ABC, the federal government had already offered some significant financial support to the Gladstone project, including $20m from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency for a “front-end engineering design” project, and a commitment of nearly $69m through the government’s Hydrogen Hubs program.

RECOVER

Of that $69m, $14m has already been paid out, and government sources suggest that if the project does not proceed, it may seek to recover unspent funds.

Typically, Mr Bowen remains supportive of the dying project.

Well, Mr Bowen, it’s not just the fact that green hydrogen is crashing like a lead Zeppelin, but your green aluminium plans are no more.

The production of aluminium is an energy intensive three-stage process involving mining, refining and finally smelting.

It is this third stage that requires a constant reliable power source which can’t be delivered by yet undeveloped green hydrogen, solar, wind or limited-capacity storage batteries.

Cut the power supply by more than a couple of hours and the molten metal can solidify, putting a smelter out of action for months.

The science explains why, and should be essential reading for Albo and Bowen.

I was reminded of all this a few days ago when we had an unscheduled power outage which lasted about two hours from mid-morning in our stretch of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.