Young County Commissioners approve reinvestment zone

County commissioners voted Monday to approve the creation of a reinvestment zone and tax abatement regarding the planned hydrogen production facility by Plug Power in Young County. The vote took place following Monday’s public hearing during the regular scheduled Young County Commissioners Court meeting.

In a unanimous vote, commissioners approved the creation of Young County Reinvestment Zone-Jade Hydrogen. The move was necessary to consider tax abatement and a tax abatement agreement negotiated with Plug Project Holding Co., LLC.

Before the vote, a nearly 90-minute long public hearing took place in which the project was explained to the commissioners and 17 members of the public in attendance for the hearing. After a brief introduction by Bob Bass, of Allison, Bass and Magee, LLP, who represented Young County in the negotiations, Mark Hannifan, Plug Power Director of Project Development, gave a brief overview of Plug Power and the planned 40-acre facility located near FM 209 and Warren Road.

The project, known as Project Limestone H2 Facility, comes from Plug Power, an Albany, New York-based hydrogen company. Plug Power is a provider of clean hydrogen and zero-emission fuel cells for forklifts, motorized pallet jacks and other material handling applications. Hannifan explained the process to turn wastewater into hydrogen.

“The electricity we use to split water into hydrogen and then liquefaction is a low-carbon or no-carbon electricity source. It could be hydropower, nuclear power, it could also be wind or solar, geothermal, etcetera. In this case today, we are here today to talk about (the) connection to a wind project (...),” Hannifan said. “You take green power, you take water, could be potable water, it could be wastewater, as in the case of the city of Graham. You bring those together, and you split the water into its hydrogen and oxygen components. And now you have a gas. But in our case, we want to liquefy that hydrogen gas, so we can transport that off-site. And the reason you liquefy it is to really condense the energy density of that fuel from a gas to a liquid. It’s like an 80 to one ratio. So the more chilled it is minus water of 21 degrees (Fahrenheit). You have a very energy-dense tanker that can take fuel six, seven, eight hours away to our off-site applications."

For the full story, see the Wednesday, March 30 edition of The Graham Leader.