Guaranteeing fuel access to ease the transition: Glenfarne & Samsung Engineering

Glenfarne Energy Transition has announced a partnership with Samsung Engineering to complete feasibility studies for multiple renewable hydrogen and ammonia projects in Chile. The collaboration will kick off with the Green Pegasus project, which will constitute 2 GW of solar PV capacity and the production of 416,000 tonnes of renewable ammonia per year for export to Asia and Europe.

Glenfarne recently launched its Hydrogen Fuels Initiative. Featuring projects in Chile, Texas and Louisiana, the initiative will lead to the production of about 1.3 million tonnes of ammonia fuel per year. To ensure easy access to future fuels for its existing customers, the company plans to build an adjacent hydrogen-based fuels platform to complement its established LNG platform.

Glenfarne’s Hydrogen Fuels Initiative will be transformational to how LNG customers and European and Asian governments will view gas imports. Alongside our LNG platform, we will be uniquely able to offer more definitive solutions for green-ready hydrogen infrastructure buildout and support their future demand for green hydrogen-based fuels.”

Brendan Duval, CEO and Founder of Glenfarne Energy Transition, LLC in his organisation’s official press release, 12 Apr 2023.

Chile’s renewable ammonia portfolio

With strong renewable energy potential and policy alignment through the National Green Hydrogen Strategy (in which it aims to have over 5 GW of electrolyser capacity installed by 2030 and to become a world-beating exporter), Chile has become an attractive proposition for renewable ammonia production for both local use and the export market.

Magallanes in the south has strong wind energy potential, with a more than 70% capacity factor (enabling wind-to-ammonia projects). In the north, the Atacama desert has a 37% solar capacity factor and solar irradiation of 275 W/m2 (enabling solar-to-ammonia projects). Notable announced projects include:

• The HNH green ammonia project by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Austria Energy and Okowind in a million-tonne-per year wind-to-ammonia project in Magallanes region to be powered by a 1.7 GW onshore wind farm, with desalination to provide water for electrolysis.
• Total Eren’s 4.4 million tonnes per year H2 Magallanes project for renewable ammonia production, which will include 10 GW onshore wind capacity to power 8GW of electrolysers, a desalination plant, ammonia production plant and port facilities. The project will be launched in 2025.
• and the solar-powered Mitsui, Toyo Engineering and Enaex renewable ammonia demonstration project, which will produce 18,000 tonnes per year in the Atacama desert. To be built in 2025, the partners are already planning a scale up to commercial-sized facilities in the future.

A model for renewable utility companies: PASH & ERIH

Also on the collaboration theme, Trafigura-backed clean energy investor PASH Global and Turkey-based renewable energy investor ERIH Holdings will create a 50:50 joint venture to develop hydrogen & ammonia projects worldwide. With an initial focus on projects in Italy and Turkey, the pair plan to develop 10 GW of renewable energy generating capacity and 5 GW worth of installed electrolysers by 2030. The announcement also indicates the pair intend for the joint venture to act as a model for renewable utility companies establishing themselves within this decade:

Building the Next-Generation Utility is the vision of the JV…Without hydrogen there can be no energy transition, no climate neutrality, and no move away from fossil fuels. Within this respect, for our hydrogen-related investments, we focused on opportunities that are likely to find their way to market in the next 5-10 years and are not as dependent on substantial, coordinated long-term government subsidies that have yet to be designated or allocated.

Akin Gunduz, CEO of ERIH Holdings in Pash Global’s official press release, 25 Apr 2023