Called the world’s “largest green energy storage project,” the Intermountain Power Agency (IPA), owner of the 1,800-MW coal-fired power plant in Delta, Utah, is moving forward with a state-of-the-art new generation facility that will be designed to run initially on a mix of natural gas and hydrogen and will ultimately operate on hydrogen alone.
In 2025, the project partners plan to use excess renewable energy from across the Western U.S. to generate “green hydrogen.” The hydrogen will be produced via electrolysis and stored in an existing underground salt dome in the county. Hydrogen would then be continuously available for grid-scale electricity generation at the Delta site.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which is the largest buyer of the plant’s power, intends to use the new plant to help meet California’s 2045 decarbonization target. A mix of 30 percent hydrogen and 70 percent natural gas fuel at start-up in 2025 is expected to reduce carbon emissions by more than 75 percent. Between 2025 and 2045, IPA plans to increase the hydrogen capability to 100 percent renewable hydrogen utilization, enabling baseload carbon-free utility-scale power generation.