The Department of Energy announced it has closed on a $504.4 million loan guarantee for the Advanced Clean Energy Storage project in Utah, marking the DOE’s first loan guarantee for a new clean energy project in nearly a decade — and one that will help finance the construction of the largest hydrogen storage facility in the world.
The Advanced Clean Energy facility is expected to create some 400 construction jobs and 25 operations jobs in central Utah, the DOE said.
Once operational, ACES will provide long-term, low-cost storage of clean hydrogen, which is made using renewable energy, and will help pave the way for decarbonizing the Western U.S. power grid.
POWER GRID AT RISK FROM RUSSIAN CYBERATTACKS AND ENERGY BLACKOUTS: TEXAS REPUBLICAN
“Since President Biden’s first day in office, DOE has made it a priority to leverage the potential of the Loan Programs Office to fund emerging technologies that will deploy clean and reliable energy to Americans,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement Wednesday.
“Accelerating the commercial deployment of clean hydrogen as a zero-emission, long-term energy storage solution is the first step in harnessing its potential to decarbonize our economy, create good-paying clean energy jobs and enable more renewables to be added to the grid,” she said.
The effort was also praised by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who said he was pleased to see the DOE’s “support of Utah’s efforts to become a world leader in hydrogen.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“This is not only a win for Millard County and Utah, but it is also an important step toward developing new energy technologies as we utilize an ‘all of the above’ approach to meet our energy demands,” he said.
