Joint venture 'green' hydrogen project tipped as beginning of hydrogen industry in Taranaki
Friday, 31 May 2019
A $50m clean energy project using wind power to produce hydrogen fuel for the heavy transport sector is being touted as the beginning of the hydrogen industry in Taranaki.
The joint venture between Ballance Agri-Nutrients, the country's second largest producer of hydrogen, and Hiringa Energy was planned to produce 'green' hydrogen at Ballance's Kapuni ammonia urea plant in South Taranaki.
'Green' hydrogen is that which is produced from renewable electricity, in this case wind generation, and water. Kapuni was the site of the country's first hydrocarbon discovery in 1959.
The joint venture has been described by the region's economic development agency, Venture Taranaki, as fantastic for the local economy and the country, as it looked to transition to a low-emissions future.
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'The initiative will help launch the hydrogen industry in Taranaki, importantly supplying not just industrial applications but also the heavy transport sector.
'The production of green urea will benefit New Zealand's food production sector,' VT CEO Justine Gilliland said in a statement.
The announcement of the project comes less than a month after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said a $27m clean energy centre would be built in Taranaki by the Government, and another $20 million will go into research.
That announcement came a year after Ardern slapped a ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration permits, while allowing no new onshore exploration outside of Taranaki.
New Plymouth MP, and opposition energy and resources spokesman, Jonathan Young, said the 'green' hydrogen joint venture was a positive step forward and an opportunity to take hydrogen production and supply from a conceptual stage to commercialisation.
The first stage of the project would see four new wind turbines built at Kapuni.
The renewable electricity would power the industrial plant and produce 'green' hydrogen to support the development of a 'green' hydrogen energy and transport hub at Kapuni.
The process would produce enough hydrogen fuel to power 6000 cars, or 300 trucks or buses, a Ballance Agri-Nutrients spokesman said.
'It is seen as a catalyst for the development of a hydrogen market in New Zealand to fuel heavy transport and displace diesel fossil fuel as fleet operators push to reduce carbon emissions,' he said.
Ballance CEO Mark Wynne said the planned renewable hydrogen hub would be a world-class example of the 'marriage of industrial scale renewable energy and hydrogen production.'
'It will provide an example for other industrial operations and a future model for decarbonisation of the New Zealand's agricultural inputs by substituting green hydrogen for natural gas as a feedstock,' he said.
Wynne said the 'nationally significant' project was linked with the development of hydrogen supply infrastructure in New Zealand and using hydrogen fuel cell technology for zero-emission heavy transport.
The project was a key step for the energy sector transition in Taranaki, and in New Zealand, he said.