Carbon Hydrogen Corporation is pleased to announce that its subsidiary wholly-owned American company, Charbone Corporation, has signed a memorandum of Understand (MoU) dated November 27, 2023 with NEK Broadband to supply them with green H₂ in the “Northeast Kingdom” of the State of Vermont (U.S.). Its use will be to provide the backup power needed for the new network NEK Broadband expanded internet under construction in this area of northeastern Vermont.

Charbone USA and NEK Broadband will continue negotiations towards an agreement that will define the price of green H₂ at the barrier, the annual volumes required and the general conditions relating to this agreement. Charbone will have the capacity to supply green H₂ from one of its closest factories. The first Charbone project in Sorel-Tracy (Quebec, Canada), is under construction and putting into production is planned for the first half of 2024 and could be the source plant. Charbone plans to develop, operate and distribute green H₂ from a network of up to 15 facilities in Canada and in the U.S.

NEK Broadband is a communications union district formed under Chapter 82 of Act 30 VSA which includes all towns in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, as well as Wolcott, and builds public infrastructure to ensure that every address with an existing public electricity service will have access to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet service. In order to maintain the system in good condition of operation and to have a continuous and reliable emergency power supply, NEK Broadband chose to install an innovative H₂ fuel cell emergency system. This system will allow them to be carbon neutral and to be the first in the Northeast United States to use such a cutting-edge system of carbon.

I am particularly proud to be part of such a wonderful community project with the NEK team Broadband in our neighboring state of Vermont,” said Dave B. Gagnon, president and CEO of the direction of Charbone. “The size of the project will allow the Charbone team to deploy our H₂ green in fuel cells and to expand our portfolio of industrial customers. We are extremely pleased with how the values upheld by the NEK Broadband team align with Charbone's mission, objectives and community values.

NEK Broadband's commitment to our community is to find ways to reduce the carbon footprint of our networks as we bring high-speed internet to unserved areas of northeastern Vermont,” said Christa Shute, executive director of NEK Broadband. "We are enthusiastic about Charbone's commitment to the production of renewable H₂, which will allow us to be pioneers in the field of green H₂ fuel cells, which will result in a carbon-free backup power system for our e-hub sites while giving our customers the confidence to use the internet for more than three days when local power outages.