Air Products will be installing the charging stations as part of their permitting and licensing to operate a green hydrogen facility on the Pontoon Bridge Road in the town of Massena .
The company needed and received approval from both the village and town boards to move forward with the installation.
"What they're looking for is a letter of intent that will authorize them to install electric vehicle charging stations," town attorney Eric J. Gustafson told the town board.
He said Air Products had negotiated an agreement with the Department of Environmental Conservation as part of the required air quality permits needed to run the new facility "so that they could show that they were working on reducing greenhouse gas emissions."
"They've asked for permission with the town to do this. They've sent this letter of intent that would authorized that particular, it's not really a gift, but a donation to the town. It would be subject to coming up with final agreements that detail specifically where things are going to go and how it's done," Gustafson said. "The letter of intent is to allow them to go to DEC and say, 'Hey, we've got this agreement in concept. Let us go forward.'"
Mayor Gregory M. Paquin also explained the plan to the village board.
"Part of their permitting and licensing is such that as part of [the] agreement, they have to put up charging stations at various locations throughout the village. Those haven't been determined yet. They just have to put this letter in with our approval saying we are going to do this. If they aren't doing it, we don't want them," he said.
He said revenue from the charging stations would come to the village.
Resident James F. Hidy wondered how the cost was regulated.
"I mean, you know what you're getting when you pump gas," he said.
Paquin said he believed it would be a different rate than those charged to homeowners.
"My belief is that they pay the rate of whatever the purchase power rate is on the open market. Massena is allotted X amount of power. Sometimes at high peaks, like when it's hot out and everybody's running their air conditioner, the amount of power that we're getting from the Power Authority isn't enough. So, Massena Electric has to go out in the open market and buy that," which is more costly, he said.
Air Products is developing approximately 84.4 acres of land on Pontoon Bridge Road for use as a hydrogen facility, to harvest up to 35 metric tons of green hydrogen daily using renewable power that will be supplied by the New York Power Authority .
The facility will produce liquid-hydrogen through electrolysis using the hydroelectric power. The company is investing about $500 million in the facility.
The process at the site will use approximately 1 to 1.2 million gallons of water a day, and the company plans to spend about $300,000 a year to purchase water from the village of Massena for the operation.
The company has started putting buildings on site starting so they can work indoors during the 2024 winter season.
They plan to start wrapping up construction in 2025, with startup scheduled for March through August 2026 . They hope to have everything wrapped up by the third quarter of 2026 with the project scheduled to be online by the first quarter of 2027.
©2024 Watertown Daily Times, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
