An offshoot of an international mining company is opening a green energy technology hub in the Denver metro in a move expected to generate more than 150 jobs and attract $2 million in state subsidies.
Fortescue Future Industries on Friday revealed it is expanding in the U.S. by opening its “green hydrogen” center here to develop commercial applications for using the fuel and to collaborate with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy, in Golden, and with area universities.
The company, known as FFI, is researching ways to use “green hydrogen” — hydrogen produced using renewable energy — for use in industrial settings.
Gov. Jared Polis and Andrew Forrest, founder and executive chairman of FFI and its parent company, are scheduled to publicly announce the company’s decision to open in Colorado at an event at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden late Friday afternoon.
Before the event, FFI released an announcement saying it plans products that will have tangible benefits, spurred on by the recent influx of federal funding for clean energy projects.
“FFI will rapidly commercialize the technology we build here to achieve real world outcomes. That is where the Inflation Reduction Act will give us the horsepower we need to bring this cutting-edge research into reality,” Forrest said. “America is the world’s deepest innovation ecosystem, and now the best place for green hydrogen investment following the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act.”
Where exactly the FFI technology hub will be located hasn’t been determined yet.
The green hydrogen hub has already qualified to receive just under $2 million in state tax incentives available to companies that create new jobs in the state.
“This exciting announcement brings good-paying jobs to Coloradans, builds upon our work to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2040, and reflects Colorado’s role as a global hub for innovation,” Polis said in a statement.
The Denver-area’s availability of a workforce with the skills FFI’s hub will need along with the state’s “forward-thinking regulatory and policy environment” gave Colorado an edge over other potential locations FFI looked at for the hub, the company said.
FFI was formed earlier this year as an offshoot of Fortescue Metals Group Ltd., an international iron ore mining company formed in 2003. FFI was given its own leadership this year as part of the evolution of Fortescue into a global renewables and resources company.
FFI also aims to help Fortescue Metals eliminate carbon dioxide emissions associated with its iron ore mining by 2030.
It’s focusing on green hydrogen as a clean fuel that can decarbonize heavy industries that today burn fossil fuels, produce a lot of greenhouse gas emissions and are considered among the hardest to switch to clean forms of energy.
That leads to a belief that the technologies its Colorado hub develops will have significant commercial potential.
“There is significant global demand for the green energy and green hydrogen FFI will produce, and for the new technology it is developing,” said Mark Hutchinson, CEO of FFI.
Hutchinson, the former president and CEO of General Electric Europe, joined FFI in July.
The unique capabilities and expertise found at NREL and around the metro area will help FFI “advance the technologies that are critical toward the transformation of our energy future,” predicted Martin Keller, director of NREL, in a statement.
The DOE last month revealed a test site for producing and storing green hydrogen at a scale suitable for industrial uses at its Flatirons campus in northwest Arvada. That effort is through a partnership with automaker Toyota USA.
© 2022 American City Business Journals. All rights reserved. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated January 1, 2021) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated July 1, 2022). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of American City Business Journals.
