A hydrogen production facility is being planned by Focus Clean Energy close to Douglas. The Pronghorn Clean Hydrogen production Hub is still in the early phases of planning, but according to Paul Martin, the company’s founder, the facility will be able to create roughly 5 gigawatts of hydrogen.
Focus is teaming up with The Nordex Group, a supplier of wind turbines, to power the hydrogen production hub , which will be situated close to Douglas. Utilizing both renewable energy sources will help reduce some of its intermittency.
The lack of transmission line capacity, according to Martin, is Wyoming’s wind energy’s biggest obstacle after nearly 20 years of wind farm development.
The inability to export and the length of time it takes to construct these interstate transmission lines have been Martin’s greatest sources of aggravation during his career as a developer of wholesale power in Wyoming.
A transmission line may take a decade or longer to be approved in large part due to federal environmental laws, which may leave a significant portion of Wyoming’s wind resources untapped, according to Martin.
According to the Energy Information Administration, Wyoming exports 13 times as much energy as it uses, making the state’s electricity-generating resources reliant on markets in other states. Wyoming wind energy can provide a lot of power, but it cannot be sold if it cannot be exported.
However, since hydrogen could be delivered by rail and pipeline, it would not be subject to the export restrictions that apply to electricity produced by wind, solar, coal, and natural gas.
Since there are so many various ways to manufacture hydrogen in general, it basically greatly expands Wyoming’s potential for economic growth, according to Martin.
Using its current infrastructure in Wamsutter, Williams, an energy corporation that manages approximately a third of the natural gas in America, is conducting research on the creation of blue hydrogen.
In order to complete the project, Focus Clean Energy is collaborating with the Wyoming Energy Authority and using matching funds.
Martin estimated that because the project is still in the early stages of planning, it might not start producing hydrogen until 2030. Martin is enthusiastic about the possibilities for hydrogen production in the state, but some details are still unknown and others remain confidential.
In particular, the concept that Wyoming resources may be used, processed locally, added value to, and then exported is relatively new for Wyoming, according to Martin.
Martin claimed that the Pronghorn hub may become one of the least expensive sources of hydrogen in the region when coupled with inexpensive Wyoming wind energy.
