Japan’s Obayashi Corporation has successfully exported green hydrogen from New Zealand to Fiji. The purpose of doing this, is for the green hydrogen to be co-fired in a diesel-hydrogen generator, which will provide power to the buildings on-site.

It was recently revealed that New Zealand has outlined its Hydrogen Action Plan, as the country has recognised its abundant renewable energy resources, as well as the country’s potential for hydrogen production. At the moment, the country’s primary focus for this project, is directly on decarbonisation.

The green hydrogen which was exported, was produced at Halycon Power’s 1.25MW project in New Zealand, specifically Taupo. This site uses electricity that is generated by the nearby Mokai geothermal power plant. Once produced, an unspecified amount of hydrogen was transferred in gas cylinders from the Port of Auckland to Lautoka Port. These gas cylinders were shipped in compliance with the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) regulations. This journey took around a week and when it arrived, it was then used for a DF generator which was installed at Fiji Gas LPG Lautoka Terminal.

In 2022 this project was chosen to be part of a demonstration which was funded by the Japanese government, it became part of The Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) Financing Support Programme.

The Japanese company commented, “The company will keep contributing to realising a carbon-neutral society through further promoting the social implementation and deployment of green hydrogen in collaboration with domestic and international stakeholders.”

Obayashi released a statement which said that the generator “successfully supplied electricity by adjusting the hydrogen flow rate to align with the facility’s electricity demand.”