Chevron acquires majority stake in ACES Delta green hydrogen hub project

Chevron USA Inc., through its Chevron New Energies division on Tuesday (September 12) announced it has acquired 100% of Magnum Development LLC (Magnum Development)  – thereby making it a majority stakeholder in ACES Delta LLC (ACES Delta) which is developing Advanced Clean Energy Storage (ACES) project in Delta, Utah.

ACES is a joint venture between Mitsubishi Power Americas Inc. and Magnum Development —now a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron.

"As we continue to pursue lower carbon energy solutions, we are excited to move forward with the Advanced Clean Energy Storage hydrogen project, through our acquisition of Magnum Development and partnership with Mitsubishi Power, to build on Chevron's 75-year history in Utah," said Austin Knight, VP, Hydrogen, Chevron New Energies.

"We seek to leverage the unique strengths of each partner to develop a large-scale, hydrogen platform that provides affordable, reliable, ever-cleaner energy and helps our customers achieve their lower carbon goals."

The ACES project is the first project designed to convert and store up to 100 metric tons of hydrogen per day. The project will use excess renewable energy to power large-scale electrolyzers supplied by Mitsubishi Power to convert renewable energy into hydrogen through electrolysis. And, the project plans to utilize solution-mined salt caverns for seasonal, dispatchable storage of the energy.

The project intends to use Utah's unique geological salt domes to store the hydrogen across two massive salt caverns, each capable of storing 150-gigawatt hours of energy.

As per Mitsubishi, the long-duration energy storage capability of the salt caverns is expected to help improve resource adequacy by capturing excess renewable power when it is abundant and dispatching it back on the grid when it is needed

"The addition of Chevron to ACES Delta is further evidence that partnership and commitment from a diverse group of experts and leaders are beneficial to the industry's continued pursuit of decarbonization solutions," said Michael Ducker, Senior Vice President of Hydrogen Infrastructure for Mitsubishi Power.

"This project is a bellwether for the industry and serves as a model for future innovative clean energy projects. We welcome Chevron and look forward to working together." 

In June 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy, Loan Program Office extended a full loan guarantee of $504 million to the ACES Delta Hub project -- making it the first clean energy project to do so in more than a decade.