Chevron Acquires Majority Interest in Utah Clean Hydrogen Project

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
September 21, 2023

Chevron, in a deal with Magnum Development, has acquired a majority interest in the Advanced Clean Energy Storage project in Delta, Utah, that is being built to produce and store hydrogen fuel.

The Advanced Clean Energy Storage project plans to use electrolysis to convert renewable energy into hydrogen and to use solution mined salt caverns for seasonal, dispatchable storage of the energy.

The first project, designed to convert and store up to 100 metric tons per day of hydrogen, is under construction and is expected to enter commercial-scale operations in mid-2025 to support the Intermountain Power Project’s IPP Renewed initiative.

Several other opportunities for the project to produce and supply hydrogen to customers in the utility, transportation and industrial sectors in the western region of the United States are in development, Chevron said.

In June 2022, the Department of Energy announced it closed on a $504.4 million loan guarantee to the Advanced Clean Energy Storage project, marking the first loan guarantee for a new renewable energy technology project from the agency’s Loan Programs Office since 2014.

The Advanced Clean Energy Storage project is designed to capture excess renewable energy when it is most abundant, store it as hydrogen, then deploy it as fuel for the IPP Renewed Project, a hydrogen-capable gas turbine combined-cycle power plant that intends to incrementally be fueled by 100 percent clean hydrogen by 2045.

The IPP Renewed project is owned by the Intermountain Power Agency, a political subdivision of the state of Utah organized to undertake and finance a facility to generate electricity, now known as the Intermountain Power Project. The Intermountain Power Agency has 35 participants, mostly municipalities in Utah and Southern California.

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest power purchaser of electricity from the Intermountain Power Project, also serves as the operating agent and project manager of the project.

Chevron U.S.A., through its Chevron New Energies division, closed the transaction with Haddington Ventures earlier this month, acquiring 100 percent of Magnum Development, which had a majority interest in ACES Delta, a joint venture of Mitsubishi Power Americas and Magnum Development that is developing the Advanced Clean Energy Storage project.