Energys Australia, as a supplier to ENOWA, has delivered a world first for the global hydrogen industry with the manufacture, international delivery and rapid on-site assembly of a Megawatt Scale Hydrogen Fuel Cell in a remote location in the Saudi Arabian dessert.
The megawatt Powerhouse came online on 10 March 2023 at the Extreme E electric vehicle rally in the remote dessert of Tabuk province Saudi Arabia. The event served as an ideal proving ground to the demonstrate the rapid deployability and operation of the turn-key power system in harsh and challenging environments.
The Hydrogen Powerhouse generator is a fully self-contained zero-emissions alternative to carbon emitting diesel-electric gen sets. The containerised system was built in Australia on behalf of ENOWA and shipped to location where it was installed and commissioned within just seven days of arriving at the event site.
The event is the first time in history that a Megawatt Scale Fuel Cell Generator has been delivered internationally to a remote location and successfully commissioned for off-grid use. At time of writing the system is one of only a handful of operating Megawatt Scale units in the world.
The system was provided to the Extreme E event by ENOWA as a zero-emissions centre piece of the Extreme E motorsports competition, a series which aims to bring attention to world climate issues and solutions.
During selected periods of the event the Powerhouse was been utilised to provide zero emission charging for the electric drive rally cars in the pit area as well as providing power to the wider event infrastructure. Having the Powerhouse on site also provided an important opportunity to provide information sessions key leaders and stakeholders regarding the future of hydrogen as a zero emissions fuel.
The Energys Hydrogen Powerhouse is a plug-and-play Hydrogen Fuel Cell Generator configurable to adapt to the client’s power requirements. The Powerhouse is modularised and housed in transportable ISO shipping containers for ease of transportation and installation. The system, including balance of plant, was installed by the Energys Australia team with the support of its Middle East partner Cummins Arabia.
The Energys Hydrogen Powerhouse is designed and manufactured locally in Australia and is the result of more than a decade of research and development with a particular focus on green energy for remote applications in harsh environments such as mining and remote power supply. The parallels between these applications and the Extreme E event made the Powerhouse particularly well suited to the conditions.
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After the conclusions of the Extreme E the Energys Powerhouse will be moved to a new location before being redeployed to other applications by ENOWA in the future.
