Global Energy Ventures to develop green hydrogen export project on Tiwi Islands

Energy transition company Global Energy Ventures (ASX: GEV) has unveiled plans to develop a 2.8-gigawatt green hydrogen export project on Tiwi Islands off the Northern Territory with a view to export up to 100,000 tonnes per annum into the Asia Pacific region.

The project will deliver a fully integrated green hydrogen production and export supply chain, starting with a fleet of the company’s 430t compressed hydrogen ships.

Global Energy Ventures is proposing a staged approach to construction with an initial development phase of around 0.5GW of installed solar generation and expanding to 2.8GW as the regional hydrogen market grows.

Managing director and chief executive officer Martin Carolan said the strategic rationale to develop this landmark upstream renewable energy project is to “demonstrate the simplicity and efficiency of using compression for a pipe-to-pipe green hydrogen supply chain and to provide greater certainty in the commercialisation of our shipping solution”.

“Our compressed shipping solution is highly modular and can therefore scale to match the advancement of electrolyser technologies and market demand for pure green hydrogen gas and deliver a competitive cost of hydrogen as the project scales,” he added.

The Tiwi hydrogen project is the result of more than six months of research, analysis and consultation to gain the support of the NT Government as well as key stakeholders including the Tiwi Land Council, the Munupi Landowners and NT Port and Marine.

“With our world-class solar resources and our proximity to key export markets, the Northern Territory is an ideal place to generate renewable hydrogen to meet the future demand within our region,” NT renewables and energy minister Eva Lawler said.

Strategically located close to future demand markets

In today’s announcement, Global Energy Ventures has highlighted the benefits of Tiwi Islands as the site of the proposed project including its proximity to one of the closest Australian ports (owned by NT Port and Marine) to the emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region – namely Singapore, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan.

The location also provides a brownfield site that can reduce development time and cost as the proposed solar site that was previously cleared of native vegetation and is currently used for commercial plantation. The proposed solar site represents only 6% of the existing plantation area.

Global Energy Ventures will also be able to access existing port infrastructure and the industrial precinct at Port Melville with availability to berth its fleet of compressed hydrogen 430t pilot-scale ships. The company also plans to introduce its full-scale 2,000t ships as required to match future supply and demand.

The integration of Global Energy Ventures’ innovative compressed hydrogen shipping solution is expected to enable a phased development and construction timeframe, “thereby benefitting from the continued decline of the capital and operating costs for solar generation, electrolysers and shipping”.

Project development to run in parallel with ship program

Global Energy Ventures said it will begin planning for a full feasibility study including further information on the project development schedule, technical partners, project scale, solar monitoring activities and the appointment of consultants.

The project schedule will run in parallel with the company’s American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) full class approval program for its 430t pilot-scale ship, which received approval in principle (AIP) earlier this month.

Financial close for the initial phase of the Tiwi hydrogen project is targeted for 2023, with first hydrogen export to commence in 2026 (subject to commercial and regulatory approvals and customer offtake).