TC Energy, Nikola in Large Scale Hydrogen Team Up

TC Energy Corporation (TSX, NYSE: TRP) and Nikola Corporation (Nasdaq: NKLA) have announced that they have agreed to collaborate on co-developing, constructing, operating and owning large-scale hydrogen production facilities in the United States and Canada.

In a joint statement, the companies said they were actively collaborating to identify and develop projects to establish the infrastructure required to deliver low-cost and low-carbon hydrogen at scale, in line with each company’s core objectives. The companies also noted that they have the desire to accelerate the adoption of heavy-duty, zero-emission fuel cell electric vehicles and hydrogen across industrial sectors by establishing hubs in key geographic locations.

A key objective of the collaboration is to establish hubs producing 150 tons, or more, of hydrogen per day near highly traveled truck corridors to serve Nikola’s planned need for hydrogen to fuel its Class 8 FCEVs within the next five years, the companies revealed. TC Energy is said to have significant pipeline, storage and power assets that potentially can be leveraged to lower the cost and increase the speed of delivery of these hydrogen production hubs.

“By leveraging our natural gas and power operations footprint, we see this new partnership as an important first step in facilitating access to affordable low-carbon production of hydrogen for the transportation and industrial sector,” Corey Hessen, TC Energy’s senior vice president and president of power and storage, said in a company statement.

“TC Energy is focused on our own decarbonization efforts as well as being the provider of choice for carbon-free energy to the North American industrial, natural gas and oil sectors. Nikola as a partner and as a customer aligns well with that approach,” Hessen added in the statement.

Nikola’s president of energy and commercial, Pablo Koziner, said, “we are excited to have a strategic partnership with a North American energy leader focused on delivering low-carbon and hydrogen-based energy solutions”.

“This collaboration with TC Energy is intended to enable the production of hydrogen at quantities and costs that are required to support customer adoption and use of FCEVs. TC Energy also offers pipeline distribution capabilities that will be essential for cost-efficient movement of hydrogen in the future,” Koziner added.

“[This] marks a major step by Nikola in accordance with its stated energy strategy for the provision of hydrogen fuel solutions to future Nikola FCEV customers and to public network fueling stations,” Koziner went on to say.

Both companies said they are committed to reducing the carbon intensity of hydrogen produced and delivered to end-use markets utilizing renewable energy, as well as low-cost natural gas, renewable natural gas and biomass feedstocks paired with carbon capture and storage.

In August, TC Energy revealed that it and privately held Irving Oil signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the joint development of a series of proposed energy projects focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating new economic opportunities in New Brunswick and Atlantic Canada. The partnership will explore opportunities that will aid in decarbonizing local industry over the medium- and long-term time horizons via the production and distribution of low emission hydrogen, coupled with a world class carbon capture and sequestration network, TC Energy noted.

In June, TC Energy revealed that it and Pembina Pipeline Corporation were planning to jointly develop a world-scale carbon transportation and sequestration system which, when fully constructed, will be capable of transporting more than 20 million tons of CO₂ annually. TC Energy highlighted several benefits associated with the project, dubbed the Alberta Carbon Grid, including the creation of a new platform with a growing reach across Alberta to facilitate production of blue hydrogen and enhance petrochemical facilities in the future.

TC Energy, which describes itself as more than a pipeline company, employs approximately 7,500 people. The company has 57,900 miles of natural gas pipeline and more than 653 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico and a 3,000 mile oil and liquids pipeline network supplying Alberta crude oil to U.S. markets in Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas and the U.S. Gulf Coast, its website shows. The company is positioned to be the most trusted and reliable resource of carbon-free energy for North America’s industrial, oil and natural gas sectors, according to its site.

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