60 GW RE For Green Hydrogen In Texas

• GHI has unveiled a green hydrogen project with 2 billion kg to be produced annually with 60 GW of onshore wind and solar energy
• It is planned to be located in South Texas around a hydrogen storage facility in the Piedras Pintas Salt Dome in Duval County
• The company says it is in negotiations with offtakers from a variety of industries, with an option to transport the same to Asia

Green Hydrogen International (GHI) has announced plans to source 60 GW worth of behind-the-meter (BTM) onshore wind and solar energy capacity in South Texas to produce more than 2.5 billion kg of green hydrogen annually, saying it will create the world's 'largest' green hydrogen production and storage hub.

Along with the 60 GW capacity, it may also draw additional renewable energy capacity from the ERCOT grid during periods of low prices.

The proposed project—Hydrogen City, Texas—will be an integrated green hydrogen production, storage and transport hub, centered around a hydrogen storage facility in the Piedras Pintas Salt Dome in Duval County.

"Access to salt storage is critical to the scaling-up of green hydrogen production as it allows for maximum utilization of electrolysers and serves as a buffer between variable wind and solar production and final delivery of green hydrogen to customers," explained GHI. It estimates over 50 such caverns at Piedras Pintas that can hold up to 6 TWh of energy storage.

Considering the scale of the massive project, it will be commissioned in phases with phase I planned for 2026 comprising 2 GW production and 2 storage caverns at the Piedras Pintas Salt Dome.

From South Texas, GHI is contemplating various options to sell the green hydrogen thus produced for which negotiations are ongoing. One such option is to transport green ammonia to Asia where it counts Japanese and Korean companies interested in partnering for the project. Japan, for one, is planning to add 30 million tons of renewable ammonia annually to the national fuel mix by 2050 and GHI sees an opportunity here.

Fertilizer market could be yet another end user considering the high natural gas prices to produce fertilizer. It is already in discussion with potential offtakers for green hydrogen as a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) or it can combine hydrogen with CO2 to create green methane rocket fuel at the Port of Brownsville. The energy port of Corpus Christi in Texas holds significant potential to become a hub for SAF, according to the company.

Hydrogen can also be considered as a replacement for natural gas for power plants.

"We see Hydrogen City becoming one of the largest H₂ production centers in the world, supplying many different customers with 100% clean H₂ fuel," said GHI Founder and CEO Brian Maxwell.

On its website, GHI mentions 2 more green hydrogen projects namely 100 GW Energy City, Texas with an output of 40 million tons per annum (MTPA), and 150 GW Project Olympus with 60 MTPA output. Both are planned to be powered by wind and solar energy technologies, but no other details are available as of now.

GHI's announcement follows a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Apex Clean Energy, Ares Management Corporation managed funds, EPIC Midstream Holdings and the Port of Corpus Christi Authority for a green hydrogen project on the Texas Gulf Coast to be powered by GWs of wind and solar capacity, in February 2022 (see GW-Scale Green Fuels Hub In Texas).