$8 billion earmarked for hydrogen production facility

Rendering of the Mountaineer GigaSystem including Hyperscale Carbon Neutral Data Centers providing both production and consumption of lifecycle carbon neutral hydrogen. (Image: Fidelis New Energy)

Energy transition company Fidelis New Energy said it will spend $8 billion on a hydrogen production facility and low carbon microgrid complex in West Virginia.

The project includes the Mountaineer GigaSystem (Mountaineer) and the Monarch Cloud Campus for data centers powered by net-zero hydrogen. Mountaineer will be implementing the proprietary FidelisH2 technology that enables production of hydrogen with zero lifecycle carbon emissions from a combination of natural gas, renewable energy, and carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration (CCUS).

The project consist of four phases with each phase producing over 500 metric tons per day (MTPD) of net-zero carbon hydrogen at an approximate capital cost of $2 billion per phase, excluding associated investments in data centers, greenhouses, the company said. The first FidelisH2 phase of the Mountaineer GigaSystem is expected to commence operations in 2028.

This net-zero carbon hydrogen will be used for a variety of purposes including carbon neutral hyperscale datacenters, greenhouses, transportation, and steel production.

Fidelis and West Virginia have finalized the operating agreement which determines the terms for the targeted storage capacity and the pore space agreement establishing exclusive rights for CCS in certain areas.

Fidelis said it has a suite of patent-pending energy transition technologies that assist in the decarbonization of hard to abate industries. FidelisH2 is a novel hydrogen production pathway that enables lifecycle carbon neutral hydrogen from natural gas and renewable energy. Fidelis’ suite of energy transition technologies also includes H2PowerCool and CO2PowerGrow. H2PowerCool utilizes FidelisH2 hydrogen as a net-zero energy source to power and cool data centers, enabling carbon-neutral data centers that can be hosted on-site at Mountaineer without utilizing off-site indirect carbon offsets or credits.

The technologies will be used by data centers at the Monarch Cloud Campus on land secured by Fidelis within the Mountaineer site and additional acreage within Mason County. Fully built out, the data center capacity could reach 1,000 MW, representing over $5 billion in additional investment, the company said. Waste heat and a portion of the captured CO2 from FidelisH2 production and waste heat the hyperscale data centers would be used as inputs to co-located greenhouses to decarbonize and lower the cost of food production.

“By combining several proven technologies from leading providers including our FidelisH2 partners Topsoe and Babcock & Wilcox, we are able to produce lifecycle carbon free clean hydrogen at scale, without taking new technology risk. Our proprietary net-zero solutions using only proven technologies are attracting significant commercial interest from hydrogen users, data center operators, and greenhouse owners. This helps the ARCH2 hub to achieve scale across the hydrogen lifecycle from production through consumption.” said Bengt Jarlsjo, Co-Founder, President, and Chief Operating Officer at Fidelis.

In conjunction with the broader project unveiling, Fidelis also announced a letter of intent with Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) to support the evaluation, development, and delivery of BrightLoop hydrogen projects at the Mountaineer site. This targets a full build out of four 200 MTPD of net-zero hydrogen production facilities. The BrightLoop technology enables the production of cost competitive clean net-zero hydrogen from waste biomass including fallen trees, sawmill waste, and other solid fuels as well as natural gas combined with carbon capture, use, and sequestration, making it a highly synergistic addition to the Mountaineer GigaSystem site.