A Chicken and Egg Situation: Enhancing Emergency Service Workers' Knowledge of Hydrogen

This  paper  reports  on  the  results  of  interviews  conducted  with  21  representatives  from   emergency services organisations within Australia and New Zealand. With a relative emergent industry such as future fuels, a chicken and egg situation does emerge with regards to how much training needs to be in place in advance of large-scale industry development or not. These respondents were employed in a variety of roles being directly involved in research and training of emerging technologies, frontline operational  managers,  and  other  senior  roles  across  the   emergency  services  sector.  Participants' responses to a series of questions were able to provide insights into the state of knowledge and training requirements within their organisations in relation to hydrogen and other future fuels. The findings suggest that formal and informal processes currently exist to support the knowledge development and transferal around the adoption of hydrogen and other future fuels. From the interviews it became clear that  there  are  a  number  of  processes  that  have  emerged  from  the  experiences  gained  through  the implementation   of  rooftop  solar  PV  and  battery  storage  that  provide  some  background  context  for advancing future fuels information across the sector. Because safety is a critical component for securing a social licence to operate, engagement and knowledge sharing with any representatives from across this sector will only help to build confidence in the industry. Similarly, because interviewees were very keen to access information, they expressed a clear willingness to learn more through more formalised relationships rather than an ad hoc information seeking that has been employed to date. The presentation will  identify  key  recommendations  and  also  highlight  the   importance  of  QR  Codes in the emergency responder landscape. Implications for industry and policy makers are discussed.