Air Products and The AES Corporation announced plans to invest approximately $4 billion to build, own and operate a green hydrogen production facility in Wilbarger County, Texas. This mega-scale renewable power to hydrogen project includes approximately 1.4 gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar power generation, along with electrolyzer capacity capable of producing over 200 metric tons per day (MT/D) of green hydrogen, making it the largest green hydrogen facility in the United States.
The new facility will be, by far, the largest green hydrogen facility in the U.S. to use wind and sun as energy sources.
The facility, which is targeted to begin commercial operations in 2027, will serve growing demand for zero-carbon intensity fuels for the mobility market as well as other industrial markets. It will yield a totally clean source of energy on a massive scale, and, if all the green hydrogen were used in the heavy-duty truck market, it would eliminate more than 1.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions annually when compared to diesel use in heavy-duty trucks. Over the project lifetime, it is expected to avoid more than 50 million metric tons of CO2, the equivalent of avoiding emissions from nearly five billion gallons of diesel fuel.
Air Products and AESi will jointly and equally own the renewable energy and electrolyzer assets, with Air Products serving as the exclusive off-taker and marketer of the green hydrogen under a 30-year contract.
The project would create more than 1,300 construction and 115 permanent operations jobs, as well as about 200 transportation and distribution jobs. It is also expected to generate approximately $500 million in tax benefits to the state over the course of the project’s lifetime, while extending Texas’ energy leadership.
“We are very pleased to announce this exciting joint venture with AES, which is one of the leading renewable energy companies in America. The new facility in Texas will be, by far, the largest mega-scale clean hydrogen production facility in the U.S. to use wind and sun as energy sources. We have been working on the development of this project with AES for many years and it will be competitive on a world-scale while bringing significant tax, job and energy security benefits to Texas. We are excited to move forward and make clean green hydrogen available to U.S. customers in the near future,” said Seifi Ghasemi, Air Products’ Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.
SOURCE: PR Newswire