Egat delegates visit Australia for closer look at clean-energy tech
The chief of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) is leading a delegation visiting Australia to learn more about hydrogen and energy storage technologies.
Egat governor Boonyanit Wongrukmit and a team of executives, along with reporters, have been in Australia since Tuesday and will wrap up their visit on Monday.
Key energy-related facilities they will visit include the Latrobe Valley Hydrogen Facility, Victorian Big Battery, and the energy innovation research site of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
The delegation will also visit Australian government agencies and offices of Egat partners to exchange ideas about clean-energy technologies.
Boonyanit said the visit would provide Egat with more know-how for achieving decarbonisation, decentralisation, digitalisation, de-regulation and electrification.
The trip will enable Egat to develop its energy storage system to create energy stability for the entire nation and to use hydrogen as a fuel or mix it with natural gas for generating electricity, Boonyanit said.
The visit will also allow Egat to further develop its existing projects to develop technologies for energy storage and for using hydrogen as clean fuel for generating electricity, he added.
The Latrobe Valley Hydrogen Facility is a significant project for Australia's hydrogen industry. It is the first project in Australia to produce hydrogen from coal and biomass using carbon capture and storage technology. This means that the project will produce hydrogen with a significantly lower carbon footprint than other hydrogen production methods.
Boonyanit said Egat had been producing “green hydrogen” since 2016, using wind farms to generate electricity and store it as hydrogen cells, which it calls a wind hydrogen hybrid system.
The hydrogen fuel cells produce 300 kilowatts of electricity to power the Egat Lam Takrong learning centre in Nakhon Ratchasima’s Pak Chong district. The wind hydrogen hybrid system phase 2 will start soon.
Boonyanit said the delegation is studying the Latrobe Valley Hydrogen Facility to help Egat launch a power plant using mixed hydrogen-natural gas in 2031.
He said Egat will also use knowledge gained from the trip to develop “brown hydrogen” from coal at the Nam Phong power plant in Khon Kaen and the Mae Moh power plant in Lampang. Carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies will be applied.
Egat executives will also learn more about reducing carbon emissions and storing energy storage during their visit to CSIRO, which is cooperating with Egat to research clean-energy storage. CSIRO is also cooperating with Egat to study technologies for production, storage and transport of hydrogen as well as using the gas for power generation, Boonyanit added.
He said Egat will learn about electricity storage during the visit to the Victorian Big Battery project.
The Victorian Big Battery is a 300 MW/450 MWh lithium-ion battery energy-storage system in Moorabool, Victoria State. It is owned and operated by French renewable energy producer Neoen. Funding of $160 million was provided by the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, the Australian government's green bank.
Boonyanit said Egat has three big battery pilot projects in Chaiyaphum and Lop Buri, with 16 megawatts, 21MW and 37MW of storage.
