Chevron New Energies, a division of Chevron U.S.A. Inc., announced it is developing a 5-megawatt H₂ production project in California’s Central Valley.

The project aims to create lower carbon energy by utilizing solar power, land and non-potable produced water from Chevron’s existing assets at the Lost Hills Oil Field in Kern County. This low carbon intensity (LCI) electrolytic H₂ will be produced through electrolysis, which is the process of using electricity to split water into H₂ and oxygen.

Chevron’s strategy is to leverage our strengths to safely deliver lower carbon energy to a growing world. Chevron believes in the value of delivering large-scale H₂ solutions that support a lower carbon world. The facility is designed to produce 2 tpd of LCI H₂, with the goal of supporting an expanding H₂ refueling network.

“H₂ can play a vital role in our journey toward a lower carbon future,” said Austin Knight, vice president for H₂ at Chevron New Energies. “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.

“I’m excited about the scalability of this solution,” Knight continued. “However, our ability to meet growing H₂ demand and help build H₂ 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.”

The development of the project is expected to span multiple years, and the start of commercial operations will depend on several factors including 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 H₂ production opportunities,” said Richard Chapman, President and CEO, 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.”