HDF Energy has announced start of construction of CEOG (French Guiana), the world’s first baseload renewable energy power plant using hydrogen technology.
According to HDF, the facility will be a multi-megawatt power plant, producing stable and dispatchable electricity, 24 hours a day, without polluting emissions.
The power plant, designed and developed by HDF, will supply a 100% renewable, stable and dispatchable power to 10 000 households at a lower cost than the diesel power plant, but without emitting any greenhouse gas, fine particle, noise or fumes. A Renewstable® power plant produces electricity using local sources of clean energy to fully sustain the local needs, reducing exposure to oil price volatility, supply risks, and saving foreign exchange.
Representing a total investment of US$200 million, CEOG is an optimised combination of a solar park, a hydrogen long-term energy storage and a battery (short-term energy storage) to produce 24/7 baseload power. It is the first time that a renewable energy project news supplies a grid through a capacity-based Power Purchase Agreement, usually used for thermal power plants. This type of electricity offtake contract guarantees the availability and stability of the electricity produced by CEOG. This last characteristic is essential for powering isolated grids or reducing congestion on large networks.
CEOG is currently being duplicated in about 20 countries such as Mexico, Caribbean island nations, Southern Africa, Indonesia and Australia. Competitive with diesel power plants, the Renewstable® power plant addresses a large power generation market.
HDF has already identified a pipeline of US$3 billion. HDF Energy already has several similar projects under development in the Caribbean region, including in Barbados where it has registered its local subsidiary HDF Caribbean, next to its strategic regional partner Rubis Caribbean.
Executives of the company will be in Trinidad & Tobago in the first week of October to continue investment discussions for the low carbon hydrogen project being developed by Newgen Energy Ltd. They will also meet with members of the National Gas Company Group, the national power distributor T&TEC and the downstream petrochemical industry.
Thibault Menage, VP Caribbean at HDF Energy, said, “After successful development of hydrogen power projects in Martinique and French Guiana, HDF Caribbean is now rapidly expanding its regional footprint. We are committed to the deployment of a regional green hydrogen economy that starts with the implementation of large-scale bankable projects”.
Menage said he is encouraged by the opportunities that exist in T&T. He went on to add that in T&T a hydrogen market currently exists, and it is a hydrogen captive market because of the ammonia and methanol plants already installed. However, these plants currently use “grey” hydrogen, and in order to decarbonise ammonia and methanol, “green” hydrogen is needed.