Hydrogen plant delay
Young County Commissioners voted to grant a one-year extension to the planned hydrogen production facility that will pay taxes to the Olney Hamilton Hospital and Newcastle Independent School District, due to what the company described as labor and equipment shortages.
Plug Project Holding Co. was supposed to have its Plug Power plant “substantially completed” by March 31 and operating by December of this year in order to receive a county tax abatement, but it has yet to break ground on the $281 million facility west of Graham.
County Judge Win Graham told commissioners at a March 27 meeting that he discussed the delays with representatives of Albany, New York-based Plug Project and learned that the company was still working out easements on water and power lines and had experienced “COVID supply shortages, equipment shortages, things you’re seeing in other places.”
Nevertheless, “it sounded to me like they are committed to his project and will be building it,” Judge Graham said. The extension gives the company until March 31, 2024, to commence commercial operations.
“They basically have to have that plant on the verge of turning on for us … [or] they are going to lose this investment zone and tax abatement,” Judge Win Graham said.
“So there should be a lot of work going on out there soon.”
A year ago, the commi s s ioner s granted a 70 percent tax abatement for 10 years to Plug Project and created a reinvestment zone for the 40acre project. The tax abatement allows the company to pay an average of about $300,000 per year in lieu of taxes over the abatement period, for a total of about $2.9 million, Bob Bass of Allison, Bass & Magee LLC told the commissioners during a public hearing on the matter.
The project was expected to create 50 full-time jobs and lift the county tax base by more than 20 percent. The company said it planned to hire all positions locally and to provide incentives for workers to live in Young County. Plug Power – the world’s largest user of liquid H2 and supplier of hydrogen fuel cells used to power space equipment and warehouse vehicles – chose the Graham site because of its proximity to the wind farm where the plant will get its power and a city plant that dumps more than 200,000 gallons of wastewater per day that can be used to produce liquid hydrogen. When complete, the plant will run 10 to 12 hydrogen-powered trucks to haul tankers of liquified hydrogen to Dallas-Fort Worth via Interstate 20, company officials said.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Stacey Rogers, who represents Newcastle and Olney, voted to approve the project, finding “the benefits outweigh the negatives, especially in our area,” because the plant will pay taxes to the Newcastle Independent School District and purchase effluent water from the city of Graham, which normally is pumped down Salt Creek.