(Vancouver, Canada / Bordeaux, France) – French power producer Hydrogène de France (HDF Energy) broke ground in French Guiana for what it described as “the world’s largest green hydrogen production project”. The capacity of the power plant (“Centrale Électrique de l'Ouest Guyanais”, CEOG) is 128 megawatt hours. Once completed, the system designed and developed by HDF will supply 10.000 households with 100 percent renewable electricity, which is cheaper than a diesel power plant, the company said. 
The costs for the combination of solar park, hydrogen storage (long-term storage) and battery (short-term storage) are estimated at 200 million dollars (172 million euros). Investors in the CEOG “Renewstable Power Plant” include the infrastructure fund Meridiam and the Martinique-based refinery SARA (Société Anonyme de la Raffinerie des Antilles), which supplies the Antilles and Guinea. SARA is part of Rubis SCA, a French oil, refining, chemical and logistics service provider.
The fuel cells are specified by HDF based on the technologies of the Canadian Ballard Power Systems Inc. According to Rob Campbell, Ballard's chief commercial officer, Ballard's Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell technology is "very well-suited to power facilities like this." HDF and Ballard expect the two 1,5 megawatt systems to be delivered by mid-2023.
Ballard Power first presented the “FCgen-LCS” technology used in 2018 at the IAA commercial vehicle trade fair in Hanover. The liquid-cooled PEM cells were presented as a "core technological component" of Ballard's portfolio of power modules for use in "heavy-duty" applications, such as use on buses, trucks and trains. HDF, listed on the regulated market of Euronext Paris since July 2021, has developed a fuel cell mass production facility that is scheduled to go into operation in France in 2023.
The “Renewstable” project in Guyana seems to be a lot behind schedule. On a CEOG website that has apparently not been updated for some time, it is said that after the development phase in 2018, the construction phase was originally planned for 2019/2020 and the operating phase should have started in 2020. The power plant is designed for an operating period of “at least 20 years”.
Critics of the project complain that the construction will, among other things, encroach on dozens of hectares of rainforest, biodiversity and the rights guaranteed by the French government, as well as the habitat of the indigenous people living there. The electricity generated is not available to the population, but is needed for the local gold mines, say the authors of an article from May this year on the website “La Relève et La Peste”. HDF did not respond to such requests, it says.
deep link
https://www.ceog.fr
https://www.hdf-energy.com/en/investors/financial-press-release/?ID=ACTUS-0-71242&CLIENT=ACTUS-0-447
https://www.ballard.com/about-ballard/newsroom/news-releases/2021/10/07/ballard-hdf-energy-announce-world-s-first-multi-megawatt-scale-baseload-hydrogen-power-plant
https://lareleveetlapeste.fr/guyane-une-centrale-a-hydrogene-va-detruire-75-ha-de-foret-amazonienne-avec-la-complicite-de-letat-francais/
Photos
A hydrogen baseload power plant is to be built in French Guiana © HDF Energy
Graphic center
CEOG Project Diagram © CEOG
