Karpowership, the world’s largest floating gas-fired power plant supplier, has won several major bids and will expand its generation capacity by 50% in 2022.
The firm expects to generate 1 118 megawatts of electricity after securing several bids in the Ivory Coast, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and New Caledonia this year.
However, its biggest projects in South Africa had continued to stall due to legal battles with environmental groups who were opposing the firm’s power plants in the country, Bloomberg reported this week. The firm won the bid for three projects in April 2021, which were expected to generate 1 220 megawatts of planned power capacity.
The company is still awaiting environmental approvals for the project in the Ivory Coast and has not yet signed any agreements with the country’s national port and power utilities. Environmental groups there have also opposed the project saying they would prefer the country to transition more quickly to reliance on renewable energy. Bottom of Form “As we have been working tirelessly to reach financial close in South Africa, we are about to deliver similar solutions all around the world,” Kurt Morais, Karpowership’s corporate relations manager, said during a presentation in Cape Town on Tuesday.
Karpowership’s 912-foot Karmol LNGT Powership Asia floating storage regasification unit is currently docked in Cape Town to refuel as it travels from Singapore to Rio de Janeiro.
Karpowership projects that are due to commence in the next few months include:
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The company, a unit of Karadeniz Holding AS, already operated gas-fired powerships in countries ranging from Cuba to Ghana and Indonesia, and also had some renewable capacity, Bloomberg reported.
Karpowership is now also considering participating in solar power projects in South Africa that will be awarded in tenders run by the government and the City of Cape Town.
This comes as Eskom battles to meet the demand for energy in the country due to its aging and unreliable coal plants. Eskom cut 4 000 megawatts of electricity from the grid for a second day on Wednesday as the country faces the possibility of more than 100 days of power cuts in 2022.
Karpowership’s facilities comprise a floating storage regasification unit, a vessel known as an FSRU that stores liquefied natural gas (LNG) at -160 Celsius, and a powership several hundred metres away. The powership consumes the gas to generate up to 450 megawatts of electricity. The vessel currently docked in Cape Town has capacity to store 125 000 cubic metres of LNG, which is sufficient to power a 450-megawatt powership operating 18 hours a day for 40 days. The FSRU is then refilled by an LNG carrier.
