The company told the market today it has brought in Darwin based EcOz Environmental Services to prepare the referral submission for lodgement with the Northern Territory Environmental Protection Authority. 

GEV said environmental permitting would be an initial focus in the new year, given it would determine the overall timing of the project. 

It announced the hydrogen export project on the Tiwi Islands off the coast of Darwin in October. 

The project will have an initial capacity of 500MW of installed solar to power electrolysers, before expanding as the regional market grows and production and supply chain costs fall.

The company is targeting an eventual production rate of around 100,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per annum. 

GEV wants to use the project as a commercial demonstration of its compressed hydrogen transport ship design that is currently in development. 

The company emphasised today that is aiming to keep the environmental footprint of the project to a minimum, using existing plantation land to site the proposed solar development and the hydrogen production, compression and loading facilities would be built on an existing industrial precinct.

GEV announced it has also hired consulting firms ILF and Jacobs to prepare engineering studies supporting the referral submission, covering the key areas of solar generation, power transmission and water transmission. 

The two biggest impacts flagged so far will be the brine discharge from the proposed desalination plant, and the land clearing for the 30km transmission line corridor. 

The company expects to lodge the submission to the NT EPA in the first half of this year.

"The referral submission is an important step forward as the environmental process is likely to drive the project schedule," GEV executive director and chief development officer Garry Triglavcanin said. 

"There are a number of key environmental studies that can only be conducted during the current wet-season." 

GEV said it is working closely with the Tiwi Land Council, Nunupi Landowners and the Tiwi Plantation Corporation for land access requirements to support the project. 

The NT government has also appointed a case manager to the Tiwi Hydrogen Project to support GEV's interaction with relevant government agencies. 

The company expects to make further appointments in the March and June quarters to help the initial phase of the project reach FID by mid-2023. 

It will also look at beginning to market the green hydrogen project to potential offtake partners in Singapore, Japan, Korea and Indonesia. 

GEV shares are up 4.7% at 11c. 

Source: Energy News Bulletin