New Texas Gas Cell Gigafactory Pours Chilly Water On Fossil Fuels

Join every day information updates from CleanTechnica on e mail. Or observe us on Google Information!

Everyone seems to be speaking in regards to the goings-on over on the iconic oil and gasoline producing state of Texas, the place public officers have been pulling out all of the stops to impede clear vitality funding. However, the hits simply carry on coming. Within the newest growth, Ballard Energy Methods is shifting ahead with plans to arrange a 3-gigawatt gasoline cell manufacturing unit in Texas, to assist squeeze gasoline and diesel out of the mobility market.

Texas Loves New Giga-Scale Gas Cell Manufacturing unit

In the event you’re pondering gasoline cell vehicles, guess once more. This explicit manufacturing unit is just not about vehicles. Ballard is a world agency, primarily based in Canada, and it’s banking on the demand for zero emission gasoline cell buses, vehicles, and locomotives to justify its gasoline cell investments around the globe. The corporate has adopted a strategic plan that focuses on constructing factories within the international locations the place its clients are located (see extra Ballard protection right here).

Texas is a part of the plan, and no less than some public officers within the state are on board with it. The concept is to construct a brand new gasoline cell manufacturing unit on 22 acres of commercial land positioned on the Rockwall Know-how Park in Rockwall, which is managed by the Rockwall Financial Growth Company.

“The REDC has offered a beautiful mixture of land, monetary, charge and allow incentives for the power, whereas aiding within the planning and approval course of,” Ballard famous in a press launch dated March 14, during which it described its determination to take a position an preliminary $160 million within the mission.

CleanTechnica is reaching out to Ballard for extra particulars in regards to the monetary angle and different components of the inducement bundle, if obtainable. We’re guessing that it was substantial sufficient to lure Ballard away from investing its preliminary $160 million in another website some place else.

There are nonetheless some procedural packing containers to verify off earlier than Ballard and Rockwell give the ultimate inexperienced gentle to the mission. Assuming that the packing containers will all be checked, the manufacturing unit might be totally constructed out by 2027, churning out the equal of three gigawatts of gasoline cells. Ballard supplies the next breakdown: “8 million membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs), 8 million bipolar plates, 20,000 gasoline cell stacks, and as much as 20,000 gasoline cell engines per 12 months.”

That’s only for starters. “The land acquisition rights and facility design present Ballard with optionality for added future phases on the Rockwall website,” Ballard explains.

“Future phases are anticipated to additional enhance manufacturing scaling and capability enlargement with a lot decrease capital necessities,” Ballard provides, which is especially fascinating. The comparatively excessive value of gasoline cells is among the many the explanation why they’ve been lagging behind battery-powered autos within the race to decarbonize the automotive business. Apparently Ballard is aiming to slim that hole.

The US Division Of Power Loves Texas, Too

The REDC is just not the one gasoline cell fan on the town. The US Division of Power has been banking on gasoline cells to assist speed up the vitality transition alongside lithium-ion batteries and different zero emission expertise.

In the identical March 14 announcement, Ballard additionally famous that the Power Division has advisable it for 2 grants totaling $40 million, to be put in direction of fantastic tuning its gasoline cell manufacturing programs. The funding got here by the company’s “Clear Hydrogen Electrolysis, Manufacturing, and Recycling Program.”

The 2 grants are a part of a newly introduced $750 million program, funded by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation, that helps the Power Division’s objective of juicing the gasoline cell business to assist deliver down the price of inexperienced hydrogen.

If permitted, one grant will put $30 million into tweaking Ballard’s current programs in partnership with the Nationwide Renewable Power Laboratory, with the objective of  offering “high-throughput manufacturing of 20,000 gasoline cell stacks per 12 months for a variety of stationary and transportation purposes.”

One other $10 million will go in direction of bringing down vitality and water consumption associated to the manufacturing of gasoline cell parts.

To gild the general public funding lily, earlier at present Ballard introduced that the Inner Income Service can be offering it with $54 million in funding tax credit for the brand new gigafactory, beneath the Qualifying Superior Power Venture Tax Credit score provision funded by the 2022 Inflation Discount Act.

Extra Sustainable Gas For Gas Cell Buses

Gas cell buses are electrical autos with no airborne tailpipe emissions, which implies they’ll present another decarbonization pathway. The one tailpipe emission from a gasoline cell electrical automobile is water, because the cell catalyzes a response between saved hydrogen and ambient air to generate electrical energy.

The sticky wicket, in fact, is the gasoline. Hydrogen gasoline cells run on hydrogen. The worldwide hydrogen provide chain is at present dominated by pure gasoline, with gasified coal additionally chipping in. Inexperienced hydrogen sourced from water is a extra sustainable selection however it’s working a distant second. Prices are excessive and authorities subsidies usually are not bridging the hole.

On the brighter aspect, some vitality analysts anticipate that prices will decline quickly in markets the place wind and photo voltaic assets are considerable, together with the US.

In that regard, the Power Division’s newest spherical of BIL funding is simply the tip of a really massive low-cost hydrogen iceberg.

Final fall, the Power Division introduced seven regional consortia to share $7 billion in BIL funding, earmarked for the institution of “Regional Clear Hydrogen Hubs.” The legislation requires a carve-out for pure gasoline sourcing, however the principle thrust is on inexperienced hydrogen and different different sources.

This system additionally focuses consideration on decarbonizing vehicles and different heavy obligation autos. “Zero emission gasoline cell vehicles have emerged as huge winners within the new Clear Power Hydrogen Hubs competitors, a $7 billion Power Division program aimed toward ramping up H2 manufacturing throughout the US,” CleanTechnica famous again in October.

Chip in a couple of {dollars} a month to assist assist unbiased cleantech protection that helps to speed up the cleantech revolution!

Extra Gas Cell Love For Texas

On March 12, the Biden-Harris administration additionally offered extra particulars on the strategic planning concerned in establishing hydrogen refueling infrastructure alongside main freight corridors within the Interstate Freeway system, as a part of a broader freight electrification plan.

Texas options prominently within the plan, with Interstates 10, 20, 35, and 45 encompassing about half the state and drifting into Louisiana.

Circling again to the hydrogen provide chain, fossil vitality stakeholders in Texas apparently hope to have it each methods. The brand new Texas-based Gulf Coast Hydrogen Hub is without doubt one of the Power Division awardees tasked with persevering with the pure gasoline provide chain buzzing, but it surely additionally describes Texas because the “largest renewable vitality market within the nation,” with 36 gigawatts of wind and 15 of photo voltaic already in hand.

We’ll see how that shakes out. Fuel stakeholders are relying on carbon sequestration to adjust to their Regional Hydrogen Hub award, although the added expense of carbon seize may tilt the stability in favor of inexperienced hydrogen and different renewable sources.

Apparently inexperienced hydrogen traders see it that method. Texas has been scoring some huge new inexperienced hydrogen investments of late, regardless of Republican-led makes an attempt to discourage such shenanigans.

Keep watch over the Hydrogen Metropolis mission in Texas, the place the Japanese agency INPEX is amongst these excited about producing inexperienced hydrogen for markets in Asia and elsewhere, with a concentrate on inexperienced ammonia.

The main wind developer Ørsted can be relying on inexperienced hydrogen from Texas to decarbonize its offshore fleet with artificial methanol. Methanol can be utilized as a liquid gasoline, however we’re simply noticing that methanol can be rising as a substitute for hydrogen in gasoline cells.

If in case you have any ideas about that, drop us a be aware within the remark thread.

Comply with me @tinamcasey on Bluesky, Threads, Publish, and LinkedIn.

Picture: Ballard Energy Methods is planning a huge gasoline cell manufacturing unit in Texas, which is able to assist push fossil vitality out of the heavy obligation transportation sector (picture cropped, courtesy of Ballard).