Owner's Engineer appointed for Villeta Project
For immediate release
13 June 2022
ATOME ENERGY PLC
("ATOME" or the "Company")
ATOME appoints AECOM as its Owner's Engineer for the world scale 60MW Villeta Project
ATOME Energy (AIM: ATOM), the international green hydrogen, ammonia and fertiliser production company with current large scale projects in Europe and South America as well as its own green Mobility Division for transport, provides a progress report on its recently announced, near term, world scale 60MW project in Villeta, Paraguay ("Villeta Project") .
Highlights
- Following a competitive bidding process, ATOME has appointed AECOM as its Owner's Engineer for the Villeta Project
- Against the background of the growing global energy and food crisis, ATOME moves swiftly to the next stage on its Villeta Project
- The Villeta Project already benefits from a signed binding power purchase agreement with 24/7 baseload available power now
- AECOM is a US based multi-national Fortune 500 infrastructure consultancy firm with nearly 50,000 employees worldwide and the necessary multi-discipline resource pool for the Villeta Project
- AECOM will act as ATOME's representative intended to oversee and deliver the Villeta Project to completion
- ATOME expects to be in large scale production of green hydrogen and ammonia for the fertiliser market by 2025
- ATOME's other large-scale projects in Paraguay and Iceland, in aggregate being in excess of 350MW, are progressing in line with expectations
- In parallel, ATOME's Mobility Division is progressing its project to generate hydrogen for heavy road transport, with first revenue generation set for the first part of 2023 onwards
Owner's Engineer
Following its fast-track project development strategy, ATOME has progressed swiftly after the signing last month of its world-scale 60MW Power Purchase Agreement for its Villeta Project where 24/7 baseload power is available now and has now appointed AECOM as its Owner's Engineer. AECOM will be tasked with supervising the delivery of the Villeta Project on time, on budget and identifying and exploiting opportunities for value engineering.
AECOM, with nearly 50,000 employees worldwide, will provide ATOME with a skilled resource pool in the relevant competencies that are required to deliver the Villeta Project. AECOM will first focus on working with ATOME in the process to make an early appointment of FEED and potential EPC contractors as well as assisting on equipment procurement, thereafter supervising the project to FID which is targeted towards the end of this year. This will be with a view to delivering the first revenue generation of commercial, large-scale production of green hydrogen and ammonia to commence by the end of 2024/early 2025.
In the meantime, AECOM is already leading the engineering for the ATOME Mobility Division which is expected to start generating revenue from the first part of 2023 onwards. The Mobility Division via its production and sales of green hydrogen for the transport sector, is then planned to expand with more production capacity being brought on-stream as demand grows and as increasing number and ranges of hydrogen-powered vehicle types become available.
AECOM
AECOM is a Fortune 500, US headquartered firm with, as stated above, nearly 50,000 employees worldwide. Its Professional Services business had revenue of US$13.3 billion in fiscal year 2021 and has to date engineered and/or constructed more than 280,000 MW of electricity generation worldwide, equivalent to approximately a quarter of all generating power in the United States today. AECOM is committed to green power and the drive to a sustainable future.
AECOM is currently engaged by ATOME to act as engineer advisor to its Mobility Division including the procurement of ATOME's first electrolyser currently being built for it by the UK public company Clean Power Hydrogen (CPH2) and set for delivery to site at or around the end of 2022.
ATOME's projects
As well as the Villeta Project, the Company's other major projects in Iceland and Paraguay are progressing in-line with expectations and in parallel with the Villeta Project. In both countries discussions with power providers are progressing well and further announcements are expected to be made during the course of this year.
ATOME is gaining traction by demonstrating its capability to convert words into action and progressing large scale projects into reality and is actively reviewing a number of additional potential prospects in varying geographies to expand its portfolio of production projects in line with its growing reputation.
In the prevailing global energy and food crisis, Atome's timely major projects for the production of green hydrogen, ammonia and fertiliser which it is vigorously progressing have particular relevance as an important part of the much needed matrix of solutions as well as fulfilling the over arching necessity of being entirely green.
Olivier Mussat , Chief Executive Officer of ATOME commented:
"Following the signing of the 60MW PPA at Villeta with ANDE where we have readily available 24/7 baseload power right now, we lost no time in reaching out to a number of global professional service engineering firms across the energy and fertiliser sectors. We were very pleased with the response and level of interest to lead ATOME's engineering work for the Villeta Project and following a thorough process we selected AECOM. We selected AECOM not only because they are one of the largest engineering firms in the world with demonstrated sector expertise and resources, but importantly also due to their personal and collaborative approach, demonstrating that they are results orientated, committed to ATOME's fast track goals and ready to deliver what we need as ATOME's Owner's Engineer.
"This appointment with our expanding in-house expertise broadens ATOME's capabilities, enabling ATOME to progress its ambitious business expansion plans beyond the original two projects at the time of our admission to AIM in December last year, both of which are in any event progressing in line with expectations. Since the IPO, we have launched our Mobility Division, made our first order of an electrolyser and are now commencing the recently added large-scale 60MW Villeta Project. The recruitment of AECOM to our team to lead engineering for both projects, enables us to consider other opportunities in diverse geographies as we see the worldwide demand for green hydrogen and ammonia growing.
"We look forward to working with AECOM in delivering the Villeta Project."
Jeff Woodward, Global Market Sector Lead - Energy, AECOM, commented:
"Our latest appointment with ATOME to deliver the exciting Villeta Project builds on our current work with them on their Paraguayan Mobility Project. With a 60MW Power Purchase Agreement already secured, this is a unique project that can quickly scale up the delivery of green ammonia supplies to decarbonise fertili s er production.
"We look forward to working with ATOME and global suppliers to deliver the project using modular principles, which will also aid the deployment of these types of technologies on similar projects as suitable renewable capacity comes forward. Aligned to our ambitious ESG strategy, this scheme draws on our extensive expertise in supporting the decarbonisation of the industrial sector and accelerating the switch to new energy solutions, partnering with our clients on projects that cut carbon emissions."
Glossary
FEED means front end engineering and design
EPC means engineering, procurement and construction
FID means final investment decision
For more information, please visit https://www.atomeplc.com or contact:
|
ATOME Energy PLC |
+44 (0) 113 337 2210 |
|
Beaumont Cornish (Nominated Adviser) |
+44 (0) 20 7628 3396 |
|
Liberum (Joint Broker) |
+44 (0) 20 3100 2000 |
|
SP Angel (Joint Broker) |
+44 (0) 20 3490 0470 |
|
finnCap (Joint Broker) |
+44 (0) 20 7220 0500 |
|
Tavistock (Financial PR and IR) |
+44 (0) 20 7920 3150 |
The information communicated within this announcement is deemed to constitute inside information as stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulations ( EU) No 596/2014 which is part of UK law by virtue of the European Union ( Withdrawal) Act 2018. Upon publication of this announcement, this inside information is now considered to be in the public domain. The person who arranged for the release of this announcement on behalf of the Company was Peter Levine, Chairman.
Notes to Editors
ATOME
ATOME Energy PLC is an AIM listed company targeting green hydrogen and ammonia production with over 400-megawatt of projects in Paraguay and Iceland, through its subsidiaries ATOME Paraguay, which is wholly owned, and Green Fuel ehf, in which ATOME Energy holds a 75 per cent interest, respectively.
Since its admission to AIM in December 2021 ATOME has signed its first electrolyser purchase order for its hydrogen transport Mobility Division due to start generating revenue in 2023 and signed a large scale 60MW power purchase agreement with ANDE, the state energy company in Paraguay for production of green hydrogen and ammonia targeted to start operations at or around end 2024.
ATOME is in the process of operational planning, sourcing and negotiations with green electricity suppliers, equipment providers and offtake partners, including signed memoranda of understanding and cooperation agreements in place with key parties, to use electricity generated from existing geothermal sources in Iceland and hydroelectric power in Paraguay. All chosen sites are located close to the power and water sources and export facilities to serve significant domestic and then international demand.
The Company has a green-focused Board which is supported by major shareholders including Peter Levine, Trafigura, one of the world's leading commodity and logistics company, and Schroders, a leading fund manager.
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