Brown coal will get a $100 million lifeline as the federal and state governments invest in an ambitious project to convert one of Australia's most polluting energy sources into hydrogen.

But on the same day, Victoria will also unveil the results of its first big renewable energy auction.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will join several ministers in the Latrobe Valley to unveil the formal launch of a $496 million, four-year pilot project to convert brown coal into hydrogen for export to Japan and elsewhere, companies and officials said.

The federal and Victorian governments have both pledged $50 million each to the project, with the rest of its funding coming from a Japanese consortium comprising the Japanese Government, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, J-Power, Iwatani Corporation and Marubeni, while AGL is providing coal from its Loy Yang brown coal mine.

However, in Melbourne, Victoria's energy minister Lily D'Ambrosio will steer a different path, telling a lunch at the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) her government had received a "fantastic" response to its auction to supply 650-megawatts of new wind or solar power.