joel.julien@guardian.co.tt
T&T will deliver its first green molecule within the next five years, chief investment officer of Hydrogène de France (HDF Energy) Charlie Desmoulins has stated.
Last month HDF announced that it had put its money where its mouth is and acquired a 70 per cent majority stake in the NewGen project in T&T, led by the local company Kenesjay Green Ltd (KGL).
When completed, the US $200+ million NewGen plant is expected to be the world largest clean hydrogen producing facility of its kind, using a smart combination of solar and energy efficiency-sourced power.
It will competitively generate carbon-free hydrogen to meet 20 per cent of the hydrogen requirement for an existing world-scale ammonia plant in the petrochemical hub of Point Lisas, Trinidad. Once up and running, the project will save approximately 200 000 t/CO2 per year.
But can T&T meet the increased hydrogen demand necessary for this energy transition?
“In terms of the renewable energy input into making Point Lisas green and blue it seems that there is a scale problem here. There is a huge demand and the ability from renewables to meet that from within the country seems that capacity isn’t there? So we have this idea of importing electrons,” president and Chief Executive officer of the Energy Chamber Dax Driver said as he chaired the panel discussion on Delivering green and blue molecules during the T&T Energy Conference yesterday.
“First I think it is important to recognise why it is so strategic to have green molecules as a business opportunity,” Desmoulins stated.
“At least as far as I understood the situation right now in T&T you cannot field 100 per cent of the methanol and ammonia plants today so having hydrogen from other sources can bring additional opportunities. A second thing I understood as well is that to date it relies on natural gas so having the kind of diversification could enable you, if there is an issue in the petrochem sector, to have other sources of hydrogen for ammonia and methanol,” Desmoulins said.
“And so the question is how do you bring such hydrogen from abroad or from T&T. The solution is quite simple if you have green electricity or green hydrogen on your soil. In order to have green electricity first you need to make sure that you maximise the resources of Trinidad,” he said,
Desmoulins said while land can be a constraint, T&T still has some land available, but we can also need to utilise solar and wind offshore as well.
“There are already some opportunities in terms of using the waste from some natural gas power plants and converting this waste into electricity so there is the energy efficiency part of it,” he added.
“You can talk about residential solar as well. So first it is to maximise what Trinidad can deliver by itself,” Desmoulins said.
Desmoulins posited that the second thing is to look at what the other neighbouring countries can do and determine the potential in the Caribbean region.
“You have a lot of sun here so you have a huge potential, and there are some countries that have geothermal and there are some countries that have a lot of wind and the question then would be once you have looked at this potential how do you bring this energy into Trinidad,” he said,
“Either you cable the country and this is something that is working in Europe. Right now you have a new project between England and Germany, you have a new project between France and Italy. There are a lot of interconnections going up. It is not easy but it could work,” he said,
“Another way of looking at that could be how do you basically transport the hydrogen from neighbouring countries to here so should we develop liquefied vessels, should we think about other solutions that are not being developed right now,” Desmoulins said.
“We are still at an early stage in the hydrogen story so there are solutions out there which is good, there are opportunities out there. How we are going to tackle that and how we are going to achieve that I think no one knows yet but the potential for sure is there in the Caribbean and you have cheap renewable electricity so you can really produce a maximum amount of that and have green hydrogen at a price that is competitive for the industry right now or the near future,” he said.