The California Energy Commission approved an $8-million grant to Equilon Enterprises—a fully owned subsidiary of Shell Oil—to develop a high-capacity hydrogen fueling station to service and promote the expansion of zero-emission fuel cell electric Class 8 drayage trucks at the Port of Long Beach. The station is to dispense enough fuel at 700 bar pressure for 10-15 fuel cell electric trucks (FCETs) per day.

Promotion of fuel cell electric Class 8 drayage trucks can address the use of older vehicles with little or no emission controls that operate at the port. Promoting the use of zero-emission vehicles will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution at the nation’s second-busiest container port. The station will source hydrogen from 100% renewable biogas.

Assembly Bill (AB) 118 (Nùñez, Chapter 750, Statutes of 2007), created the Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program (ARFVTP). The statute authorizes the California Energy Commission to develop and deploy alternative and renewable fuels and advanced transportation technologies to help attain the state’s climate change policies.

AB 8 (Perea, Chapter 401, Statutes of 2013) re-authorizes the ARFVTP through 1 January 2024, and specifies that the Energy Commission allocate up to $20 million per year (or up to 20% of each fiscal year’s funds) in funding for hydrogen station development until at least 100 stations are operational.

The newly funded project will provide evidence of scalability by delivering station performance data for very large capacity stations (800 kg of hydrogen in 12 hours and 1,000 kg/day), which will augment current data collection efforts managed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

The Energy Commission also approved a plan outlining actions that California can take to improve clean energy access in the low-income multifamily building sector.

The Energy Commission also approved a recommendation allowing the cities of Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, and Riverside, and the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, to enter a power sales contract to procure energy from an 840-megawatt natural gas facility called the Intermountain Power Project Repowering Project. The natural gas energy procured will replace electricity procured from a coal fired plant. The Intermountain Power Project Agency in western Utah operates the project.