Looking at how small companies can progress with public funds,...

Looking at how small companies can progress with public funds, you don't need to go too much further than the Carnegie (CCE). It has been something of a saga … I haven't been following it, apart from knowing it exists and seeing peripheral news.

Point being that a company with a MC of $8M managed to grab a tender from the WA Government worth some $30M - in what appears to be a set up to create a one horse race.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02...egie-albany-wave-farm-tender-process/10812812

I'm not commenting on the tender or the probability of success - but the government is effectively forking out 4 times the company value to allow them to set up what amounts to a pilot plant - with no guarantee of success.

If they can get that, I would suggest that sort of funding will be available in an area which has much greater interest for public funds than a niche energy player.

I reckon a bigger issue is that, at the moment, there is very little market for hydrogen in Australia - and that is needed to make it all come together. This "hydrogen highway" for the Pilbara, or utilities forced to utilise a percentage of hydrogen in the natural gas they supply would be the catalyst to free up those sorts of public development funds - and Hazer would be a prime candidate for them.