The US Department of Energy (DoE) on Wednesday said it has closed on a USD 504.4 million (EUR 470m) loan guarantee to help finance the construction of the “world’s largest clean hydrogen and energy storage project” in Delta, Utah.
The Advanced Clean Energy Storage project will combine 220 MW of alkaline electrolysis with two large salt caverns to store clean hydrogen produced from excess renewable energy. The hydrogen will fuel the Intermountain Power Agency’s (IPA) IPP Renewed Project, a hydrogen-capable gas turbine combined cycle power plant that aims to run on 100% clean hydrogen by 2045. The plant will initially use a blend of 30% green hydrogen and 70% natural gas starting in 2025, the project developers said.
The project is a partnership between Mitsubishi Power Americas Inc and Magnum Development.
The loan guarantee is DoE’s first for a new clean energy technology project since 2014. It comes after earlier this year, the department announced a conditional commitment for a loan guarantee for the project.
“Accelerating the commercial deployment of clean hydrogen as a zero-emission, long-term energy storage solution is the first step in harnessing its potential to decarbonise our economy, create good paying clean energy jobs and enable more renewables to be added to the grid,” commented US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M Granholm.
(USD 1 = EUR 0.931)
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