Page 11 - DMEA Week 22 2021

DMEA FUELS DMEA

Tlou to develop hydrogen

strategy for Lesedi GTP

AFRICA AUSTRALIA’S Tlou Energy hopes that its the electricity needed to electrolyze water into
Lesedi gas-to-power (GTP) project in Botswana hydrogen and oxygen. Additionally, it said, water
will serve as a springboard for blue and green is “readily available” within the acreage in Bot-
hydrogen production. In a statement dated May swana. The statement did not reveal how much
28, Tlou said it intended to develop a “hydrogen hydrogen Tlou hoped to turn out in the future or
strategy” to complement the GTP scheme. when production might begin. It did say, though,
This strategy should be relatively easy to that a move in this direction would “open mul-
implement, it said, since the company has tiple additional business opportunities such as
already secured some of the assets and admin- solid carbon products, oxygen, ammonia for
istrative permits it will need to move into hydro- energy storage, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV),
gen production. agricultural and medical applications.”
“A hydrogen strategy would benefit from In the meantime, the company is holding dis-
Tlou’s extensive approvals secured to date, cussions on a $10mn financing package for the
including environmental, gas and solar gen- initial stage of the Lesedi GTP project, which will
eration licences, access to land and established involve the construction of electricity transmis-
in-country operational expertise,” it explained. sion lines and substations. Some of the parties
“Development of hydrogen is planned to run involved in these talks have indicated that they
in tandem [with the Lesedi GTP project] and would prefer to see Tlou sign a 10-MW power
with time could develop into a lucrative oppor- purchase agreement (PPA) with Botswana
tunity for the Company given the availability of Power Corp. (BPC) before proceeding, while
Tlou’s gas and solar power,” it added. others “have not expressed a specific need” to
The company went on to say that it would be take this step beforehand, the statement said.
able to use its entire resource base to produce Tlou signed an interim PPA with BPC in Jan-
hydrogen. It noted that it had access to “virtually uary of this year, but the agreement only covers
unlimited” supplies of solar power and coal-bed the first 2 MW of electricity from the Lesedi GTP
methane (CBM) that could be used to generate scheme.™

Work begins on Temane GTP project

AFRICA MOZAMBIQUE’S government has marked the Meanwhile, Dennis Hearne, the US ambas-
beginning of work on a natural gas-to-power sador to Maputo, noted that his country had
(GTP) project designed to expand domestic provided financial support to the GTP project in
electricity supplies. In a ceremony held on May the form of a $200mn direct loan from the US
31, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi hailed International Development Finance Corpora-
the start of construction on a 450-MW thermal tion (DFC).
power plant (TPP) and associated transmission He also pointed out that the US government
infrastructure in the southern city of Temane. was supporting a related initiative – namely, the
The project will allow Mozambique’s national Temane Transmission Project (TTP), which
power provider, Eletricidade de Moçambique envisions the construction of a 563-km, 400-kV
(EDM), to use locally produced gas to make elec- power transmission line linking the Temane TPP
tricity more widely available, he said. to South Africa’s national grid. “[Thanks] to the
“Today we mark a milestone in the frame- support of the US government’s signature Power
work of this endeavour to illuminate Mozam- Africa programme, we are providing a ‘transac-
bique,” he was quoted as saying by Reuters. tion advisor’ assigned to EDM to help bring the
“Our governance aspires that more than 10mn critical Temane transmission line project to [a]
Mozambicans will have access to electricity for financial close,” he said.
the first time in their homes by 2024.” The new TPP is being built by Central Ter-
The initiative also won praise from Idah mica de Temane (CTT), a consortium formed
Pswarayi-Riddihough, the World Bank’s country by Globeleq (UK), eleQtra (UK), Sasol (South
director for Mozambique and four other African Africa) and EDM. Sasol has agreed to provide
states. “Today, we are witnessing the exceptional gas for the TPP from its onshore Pande-Temane
beginning of a vision that aims to provide energy Inhassoro fields, and Globeleq will supply
for all Mozambicans,” she said at the launch electricity to EDM under a 25-year tolling
ceremony. agreement.™

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