Fortescue Future to acquire Nikola’s Phoenix Hydrogen Hub project

Nikola Corporation and Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), a global green energy and metals company, announced that FFI will acquire Nikola’s Phoenix Hydrogen Hub (PHH) project. (Earlier post.) FFI will bring the capital and resources required to fully develop the project and the parties are working towards a hydrogen supply agreement to support Nikola’s Class 8 zero-emission trucks.

Rendering of PHH.

Nikola says that the agreement is fully aligned with its capital-efficient energy strategy to collaborate with partners interested in the hydrogen energy ecosystem that Nikola is pioneering.

The PHH is a fast-to-market, green hydrogen project located near Phoenix, in the city of Buckeye, Ariz., and is expected to be built in phases to scale alongside demand. The project is expected to progress towards its first hydrogen production by the middle of this decade.

PHH marks the first project announced as part of the Memorandum of Understanding signed in January 2023 between the two companies to collaborate on and evaluate the co-development of large-scale US green hydrogen production facilities.

FFI and Nikola are working towards a hydrogen supply agreement to support Nikola’s hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle demand. The large-scale deployment of hydrogen as a zero-emission fuel into the transportation sector, is expected to benefit from both the hydrogen tax credit in the federal Inflation Reduction Act and state level incentives such as the Low Carbon Fuel Standard in California.

The PHH project is currently going through the final stages of its permitting process, and the procurement of long-lead equipment is underway.

In addition to developing technology solutions for hard-to-decarbonise industries, while building a global portfolio of renewable green hydrogen and green ammonia projects, FFI is also developing and acquiring the technology and energy supply to help decarbonize the iron ore operations of one of the world’s largest producers of iron, Fortescue Metals Group, by 2030 (Scope 1 and 2 terrestrial emissions).

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