A New York nuclear plant has begun producing hydrogen at a 1-MW production facility, providing enough energy to meet the plant’s operational hydrogen use and advancing the viability of clean hydrogen in the U.S., its operator said Tuesday.
Constellation Energy announced that its Nine Mile Point Nuclear Plant in Oswego, New York, has begun producing hydrogen at its demonstration-scale clean hydrogen production facility, using 1.25 MW of energy per hour to produce 560 kilograms of clean hydrogen a day.
This is “more than enough to meet the plant’s operational hydrogen use,” Constellation said in a news release.
“It will also help set the stage for possible large-scale deployments at other clean energy centers in Constellation’s fleet that would couple clean hydrogen production with storage and other on-site uses,” it said.
Three other nuclear-powered hydrogen demonstration projects are underway. The Constellation project ran behind schedule, according to a U.S. Department of Energy release in November that said the company planned to produce hydrogen at Nine Mile Point before the end of last year.
The Davis–Besse nuclear plant in Ohio is expected to start producing hydrogen sometime this year, while the Prairie Island plant in Minnesota and Palo Verde plant in Arizona are expected to start producing hydrogen in 2024. The plants all received DOE grants to advance their clean hydrogen development.
“This accomplishment tangibly demonstrates that our nation’s existing reactor fleet can produce clean hydrogen today,” Kathryn Huff, DOE’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy, said in the release. “DOE is proud to support cost-shared projects like this to deliver affordable clean hydrogen.”
Constellation plans to invest $900 million through 2025 to advance commercial clean hydrogen production. Their goal is to produce at scale to provide clean energy for “otherwise hard-to-decarbonize industries like aviation, long haul transportation, steelmaking and agriculture.”
