New Fortress Energy is nearing an announcement to spin off its hydrogen business as a separate entity.
The liquefied natural gas operator is working to advance its first hydrogen plant in Beaumont, Texas, a project it wants to have “fully committed and out of the ground” in the first half of this year, CEO Wes Edens said on an earnings call yesterday.
Once the project is established, the company would “in all likelihood, spin that off as a separate company because it deserves to have a separate identity,” Edens added.
New Fortress previously disclosed it is planning to build five industrial-scale hydrogen production hubs as part of its pursuit of a pure-play clean hydrogen infrastructure business.
Edens added that long lead items have been ordered from Plug Power, a site has been cleared, and the bulk of the engineering has been completed.
Plug Power will provide electrolyzers while Entergy will provide renewable power to the Beaumont plant, which is set to begin operations in 2024.
The location of the project in southeast Texas is near refineries with an anticipated demand of 1,000 tons per day – over 20 times the 50 tons per day the Beaumont plant will produce initially.
“The IRA and the incentives the government has provided, you know, makes the US the most attractive place on earth to build hydrogen facilities,” Edens added on the call.
“The location of those facilities is very, very important,” Edens continued, “because when you create hydrogen, it quickly turns from a chemistry problem into a transportation problem. So you want to be located next to where people are going to use it.”
The Beaumont site is ideal because it is close to customers as well as hydrogen pipelines, he said.
“Our goal is to have a pretty specific update on this in the not-too-distant future.”
