Editors Note: This article was originally published in the Feb. 28, 2024 issue of the Chronicle Progress. Some information may be outdated.
Green hydrogen storage set to begin this fall; first two caverns mined, brine ponds built
This fall is when the first green hydrogen generated locally is expected to be stored in a salt cavern more than a 1,000 feet below Intermountain Power Project, according to an update heard last week by county commissioners.
ACES Delta officials Susan Fernandez, a senior strategy director, and Bill Myers, the company’s chief operating officer, provided the update, explaining the steps taken so far and the work still left to do in order to begin feeding hydrogen to IPP’s new gas power plant starting in 2025.
The project is currently in its first phase, with commissioning of water, brine and communication infrastructure set to take place this spring. Drilling at the first two caverns is complete. And construction on two brine ponds is also finished.
Facilities in progress include the actual solution mining work in the two new caverns as well as construction on the hydrogen production facility. Power interconnections, roads and safety and security systems work is also in progress.
The first cavern to be fully operational will be an intermediately sized one, Myers told county officials. It will still be big enough to store the equivalent in hydrogen of some 3 million barrels of oil, he said.
Myers told commissioners it takes about 24 months and roughly 40 million gallons of water to mine out a hydrogen cavern—Intermountain Power provides the water and electricity for the site. The brine solution left inside the caverns is eventually replaced with hydrogen, evaporative ponds transform the brine into table grade or road grade salt.
Asked by Commissioner Bill Wright what will eventually be done with all the salt, Myers confirmed that once four or five caverns worth of brine are mined a salt producer would likely build a facility to process the salt for consumption.
“We’re moving right along, we expect to be putting hydrogen into the caverns by this fall,” Myers said.
The COO said since ACES received a Department of Energy loan—the first in a decade for clean energy, it amounted to $504 million— for the hydrogen facility, DOE officials and engineers are closely monitoring the site’s progress and the processes put in place to make the facility operational and safe. Global energy giant Chevron also purchased a majority ownership stake in ACES last September.
A variety of state agencies are also being kept informed through monthly updates about the hydrogen facility’s progress.
Myers said ACES is in sync with IPP Renewed and its effort to be fully operational in 2025.
Wright asked about employment at ACES and was told the first phase will need between 20 and 25 workers, many of them already hired. Most are also county residents.
Naes, a third-party operator, was brought on to actually run the facility. It, too, has been advertising and hiring initial executive and administrative staff members.
Wright characterized the work at ACES as a continuous construction program that could last for decades.
Myers said it’s true the salt dome below IPP could eventually accommodate between 75 and 100 caverns for fuel storage.
“I fully expect this to be the smallest of the facilities that we build,” Myers said of the first phase. “The next one should probably be twice as big.”
ACES holds a conditional use permit with the county that allows it to build up to 15 storage caverns and host 10 industrial sized electrolyzers, which create hydrogen from water.
The permit also allows up to four compressed air energy storage units, three evaporation ponds as well as rail, truck, utility and support infrastructure.
Sawtooth, a closely related business, maintains fuel storage capacity in the same salt dome structure for other types of fuel, such as butane and natural gas liquids.
