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    Chevron Building Solar-to-Hydrogen Production Facility in California to Expand Commercial Hydrogen Adoption

    March 4, 2024
    The project will produce 2 tons of LCI hydrogen per day by utilizing solar power, land, and non-potable produced water from its existing assets at the Lost Hills Oil Field
    Chevron New Energies
    65e5e9f0762f70001e3e54ed Chevron New Energies

    Chevron New Energies, a division of Chevron U.S.A., is developing a 5 MW hydrogen production project in California’s Central Valley to create lower carbon energy by utilizing solar power, land, and non-potable produced water from its existing assets at the Lost Hills Oil Field in Kern County.

    The low carbon intensity (LCI) electrolytic hydrogen will be produced through electrolysis - the process of using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The facility will produce 2 tons of LCI hydrogen daily and support an expanding hydrogen refueling network.

    “Chevron already offers lower carbon fuels like sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel, and others, and this project is expected to expand the portfolio of solutions Chevron could supply to the region,” said Austin Knight, VP for Hydrogen at Chevron New Energies. 

    “Our ability to meet growing hydrogen demand and help build hydrogen fueling infrastructure in California to a commercial scale with more widespread adoption will be strongly led by state and federal energy policies that promote new lower carbon energy solutions," added Knight.

    While the project’s development will take multiple years to complete, the beginning of commercial operations will depend on flexible and supportive legislative and regulatory energy policies, final engineering design, timely permitting, and obtaining the necessary materials.

    “This project will help develop key technical and commercial proof points as Chevron New Energies assesses concepts for future scale-up and new lower carbon intensity hydrogen production opportunities,” said Richard Chapman, President and CEO of the Kern Economic Development Corporation. “By locating expected production in the Central Valley, we believe the project will be well positioned to meet the demand of customers along an important transportation corridor, as well as having proximity to key California urban markets.”

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.