OREANDA-NEWS. JSC RusHydro (ticker symbol: MICEX-RTS, LSE: HYDR; OTCQX: RSHYY) RAO Energy Systems of the East and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd (Japan) have signed a preliminary agreement on construction of a plant that will produce liquefied hydrogen (LH) in the Russian Far East. The document was signed on June 20th by Evgeny Dod, CEO of RusHydro, Sergei Tolstoguzov, CEO of RAO Energy System of the East and Shigeru Murayama, President of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd at St. Petersburg Economic Forum.

According to the agreement, RusHydro, jointly with its subsidiary, RAO Energy Systems of the East, will supply electric power to the LH plant, whereas Kawasaki Heavy Industries will act as key provider of technology for production, storage and transportation of the liquefied hydrogen. Liquefied hydrogen, to be produced by the facility, will be exported to Japan.

"Energy is the driver of development of regions and the agreement we are signing supports this thesis. We commission new capacity which, in turn, attracts domestic and international investors, interested in developing industrial projects in the region. It is important to underline that cooperation between RusHydro and Kawasaki in the Far East will create not just another high energy consuming industrial entity, but a high tech facility, with only few comparable plants in world. We are talking not only about investment, but about advent of new technologies and advanced production culture", said Evgeny Dod, CEO of RusHydro.

"Today the whole world is interested in hydrogen as cheap- and even more importantly clean- source of energy. That's why we, together with our Japanese partners, are considering construction of a facility for production of liquefied hydrogen in the regions of the Far East with excess generation capacity, because production of liquefied hydrogen is very energy intensive. In this respect our partnership is very logical because RusHydro and RAO ES of the East has respective capacity close to potential markets and Kawasaki possesses know-how for production and transportation of liquefied hydrogen. As a first step the feasibility study will be developed. If the project will prove to be economically attractive, we, together with Kawasaki and RusHydro, will begin implementation. We are talking about large scale and long term cooperation between Russian and Japanese companies", said Sergei Tolstoguzov, CEO of RAO Energy System of the East.

Masakhiro Ibi, Senior Executive Director of Kawasaki said: "Hydrogen is a source of clean energy. Efficient utilization of this energy already in near future is closely linked to our mission "Kawasaki works as a coherent team for the benefit of the planet". We are steadily expanding our technical capabilities in the spheres of logistics, energy and industrial equipment. Our technologies are also applicable for development of efficient ways of hydrogen utilization. Our partners in the project include the largest Russian hydrogenating company RusHydro and RAO ES of the East with whom we are already cooperating in the field of cogeneration in the Russian Far East. Within the framework of the signed agreement, with the view to utilize energy resources of the region in the most efficient way, we have decided to carry out analysis of economic efficiency and develop feasibility study for production of liquefied hydrogen in the Russian Far East, primarily in Magadan region, with further shipment of hydrogen to Japan. We hope that the project, capable of bringing about revolution in energy sphere in the near future, will allow us to demonstrate our newest technologies in Russia and will significantly contribute to economic development of both our countries".