Gretta Stephens was speaking on a panel considering the take-up of hydrogen power, at the Sydney Energy Forum hosted by the Business Council of Australia, Australian Government and International Energy Agency.

The conference featured international leaders of government and industry, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Ms Stephens cautioned that green steel - made without coal, or with few carbon emissions - was a long way off, and would require massive industry collaboration.

"We can't solve this on our own or by ourselves," she said.

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"It's a very exciting time and I feel quite positive about the future, but I will pause to throw in a quick reality check about green steel.

"Green steel is far more popular in the headlines, or more common in the headlines, than it is in the wild.

"There is no green steel.

"There is no commercial green steel being made anywhere in the world. There are very small quantities being made at pilot scale only and I applaud those projects, they're doing brilliant work for us.

"But it is at a very low technology readiness level, very small scale, and a long way to go.

"We're not sitting on our hands waiting for it to happen, we want to help create that future. And that's why we're pursuing partnerships and projects to explore the practical industrial application of hydrogen in Australia-New Zealand and steelmaking."

Ms Stephens said an Illawarra hydrogen hub would help by allowing industry, including heavy transport and shipping, to share expenses with BlueScope as "a foundation customer for hydrogen" in the region.

Government investment would remove the risk for industry of new energy sources, but a supply of electricity at low wholesale prices was a problem.

"We keep talking about not underestimating the scale of investment required. We see a role for governments to accelerate that switch - through de-risking and lowering of the cost of network investment and enabling those new energy sources and infrastructure to be integrated into the market at the rate required," she said.

"For hydrogen-based steelmaking economics to stand up, the hydrogen industry in Australia needs to be producing at less than the $2 per kilo aspirational target.

"And it needs to be produced at the point of use, given the expense that we're heard about in terms of storage and transport.

"Right now, with projections of $90 to $100/MWh for wholesale electricity, and those projections out for the next 10 years don't seem to be dropping off ... something needs to give."