A division of Chevron USA, Chevron New Energies, declared that it is planning a 5 MW hydrogen generation facility in the Central Valley of California.
By utilizing solar energy, land, and non-potable generated water from Chevron’s current holdings at the Lost Hills Oil Field in Kern County, the initiative seeks to produce electricity with a lower carbon footprint.
Electrolysis will yield this low carbon intensity (LCI) electrolytic hydrogen.
The facility’s design aims to support a growing network of hydrogen refueling stations by producing two tons of LCI hydrogen daily.
“Hydrogen can play a vital role in our journey toward a lower carbon future,” said Austin Knight, vice president for hydrogen at Chevron New Energies.
“Chevron already offers lower carbon fuels like sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel and others, and this project is expected to expand the portfolio of solutions Chevron could supply to the region.
“I’m excited about the scalability of this solution,” Knight continued. “However, our ability to meet growing hydrogen demand and help build hydrogen fueling infrastructure in California to a commercial scale with more widespread adoption will be strongly led by state and federal energy policies that promote new lower carbon energy solutions.”
The project is anticipated to take several years to complete, and the commencement of commercial operations is contingent upon a number of conditions, such as accommodating and supportive legislative and regulatory energy policies, a completed engineering design, timely permitting, and the acquisition of necessary materials.
Richard Chapman, President and CEO, Kern Economic Development Corporation said, “This project will help develop key technical and commercial proof points as Chevron New Energies assesses concepts for future scale-up and new lower carbon intensity hydrogen production opportunities.”
“By locating expected production in the Central Valley, we believe the project will be well positioned to meet the demand of customers along an important transportation corridor, as well as having proximity to key California urban markets.”
Source Chevron
