PowerTap Hydrogen Capital Corp. (NEO:MOVE.AQN, OTC:MOTNF, FRA:2K6) said it has submitted a municipal siting application for the first site in Northern California of its Gen3 modular hydrogen production and dispensing unit.
The company added that it plans to submit applications for two additional sites by early October 2021.
Upon approval, the Vancouver, British Columbia-based company will have the green light to install PowerTap Gen3 units at three existing gas stations in Northern California – two in Humboldt County and one in Monterey County.
As previously reported, the company's wholly-owned subsidiary PowerTap Hydrogen Fueling Corp. has spent nearly US$2.8 million to complete the blueprint design for the PowerTap Gen3 Unit as part of its plan to install hydrogen production and dispensing fueling infrastructure in the US.
From a historical standpoint, the company noted that hydrogen production and dispensing is returning to Humboldt County. In 2008, Humboldt State University installed the first and, currently northernmost, hydrogen production and dispensing unit in California.
Complete entitlement and construction permit approval will take approximately 14 months from pre-application to the municipality, including planning/site design review and approval, development of construction documents up to final construction permitting, the company added. With this timeline, it anticipates that the commission and installation of the PowerTap Gen3 Units in California will commence in late 2022.
PowerTap’s patented solution has been developed over 20 years. It is now commercializing its third-generation blue hydrogen product that will focus on the refueling needs of the automotive and long-haul trucking markets that lack hydrogen fueling infrastructure.
There are currently under 100 operational publicly available hydrogen stations in the US with most of the existing stations purchasing industrial hydrogen from industrial manufacturers and shipping hydrogen to individual stations via tanker trucks.
Contact the author at stephen.gunnion@proactiveinvestors.com