PHOENIX and WEST TERRE HAUTE, Ind., June 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Nikola
Corporation (NASDAQ:NKLA), a global leader in zero-emissions
transportation and infrastructure solutions, and Wabash Valley
Resources LLC (WVR) announced today that Nikola is investing
$50 million in cash and stock in
exchange for a 20% equity interest in the clean hydrogen project
being developed in West Terre
Haute, Ind. The project plans to use solid waste
byproducts such as petroleum coke combined with biomass to produce
clean, sustainable hydrogen for transportation fuel and base-load
electricity generation while capturing CO2 emissions for permanent
underground sequestration. Once completed, the project is expected
to be one of the largest carbon capture and clean hydrogen
production projects in the United
States. The focus is to produce zero-carbon intensity
hydrogen with the potential to develop negative carbon intensity
hydrogen in the future.
Working together, Nikola and WVR expect to lead in the
transition to clean transportation fuels for trucking operations
within the Midwest, one of the most intensive commercial
transportation corridors in the United States.
This investment is anticipated to give Nikola a significant
hydrogen hub with the ability to offtake approximately 50 tons a
day to supply its future dispensing stations within an approximate
300-mile radius, covering a significant portion of the Midwest.
Exercising its offtake right will likely require significant
additional investment by Nikola to build liquefaction, storage, and
transportation services.
"We intend this project to produce clean, low cost hydrogen in a
critical geography for commercial transportation." said
Pablo Koziner, President, Energy and
Commercial, Nikola. "The Wabash
solution can generate electricity as well as hydrogen
transportation fuel, which should provide the flexibility to
support future truck sales and hydrogen station rollout in the
region. The expected efficiency of WVR's clean hydrogen
production should allow Nikola's bundled truck lease, including
fuel, service, and maintenance, to compete favorably with
diesel."
As part of this investment in the hydrogen economy in the
Midwest, Nikola intends to build stations across Indiana and the broader Midwest to serve the
region.
"WVR is developing a multi-product facility, where the hydrogen
can be combusted in a turbine to produce clean baseload power. The
recent spate of power outages serves as a reminder that the market
has a pressing need for a non-intermittent source of clean
energy. We also look forward to working with Nikola to bring
zero-emission transportation solutions to the Midwest," said
Simon Greenshields, Chairman of the
Board for Wabash Valley Resources.
The completed facility should have the capability to produce up
to 336 tons per day of hydrogen, enough to generate approximately
285 megawatts of clean electricity. The project is expected
to require 125 full-time employees and may support 750 construction
jobs. Groundbreaking is expected in early 2022 and take
approximately two years to complete.
The U.S. Department of Energy concludes that by 2050, the U.S.
hydrogen economy could lead to an estimated $750 billion per year in revenue and a cumulative
3.4 million jobs.
The first Nikola Tre hydrogen
fuel-cell prototype builds have begun in Arizona and Ulm, Germany, with testing and validation of the
vehicles planned into 2022, and serial production expected to
commence in 2023.
About Nikola
Nikola Corporation is globally
transforming the transportation industry. As a designer and
manufacturer of zero-emission battery-electric and
hydrogen-electric vehicles, electric vehicle drivetrains, vehicle
components, energy storage systems, and hydrogen station
infrastructure, Nikola is driven to revolutionize the economic and
environmental impact of commerce as we know it today. Founded in
2015, Nikola Corporation is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. For more information,
visit www.nikolamotor.com or
Twitter @nikolamotor.
About Wabash Valley Resources
Wabash Valley Resources
LLC (WVR) acquired a world-scale gasification plant in 2016,
with plans to convert it to a hydrogen production plant and carbon
capture and sequestration project. The project was recently
selected to receive funding from the Department of Energy (DOE) as
part of the Carbon Storage Program. The Program's objective is
the advancement, development and validation of technologies that
enable safe cost-effective, and permanent geologic storage of
carbon dioxide. Phibro remains the largest shareholder of
WVR. For more information, please
visit https://www.wvresc.com/
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS OF NIKOLA CORPORATION
Certain statements included in this press release that are not
historical facts are forward-looking statements for purposes of the
safe harbor provisions under the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements generally are
accompanied by words such as "believe," "may," "will," "estimate,"
"continue," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "should," "would,"
"plan," "predict," "potential," "seem," "seek," "future,"
"outlook," and similar expressions that predict or indicate future
events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters.
These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to,
statements regarding the potential benefits of the Nikola's
investment in WVR; the ability of the project to generate clean,
sustainable hydrogen; the ability of the project to use the
produced hydrogen to generate power generation or fuel vehicles;
the ability of the project to capture CO2 emissions through
permanent underground sequestration; whether Nikola and WVR can
lead in the transition to clean transportation fuels for trucking
operations in the Midwest; Nikola's ability to create a hydrogen
hub in the Midwest to fuel its vehicles through future filling
stations; whether the produced hydrogen will support Nikola's truck
leasing model to be competitive with diesel trucks; expectations
regarding future investments and the levels thereof; and the
excepted daily hydrogen output, as well as timing of the completion
of the project. These statements are based on various assumptions,
whether or not identified in this press release, and on the current
expectations of Nikola's management and are not predictions of
actual performance. Forward-looking statements are subject to a
number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results
to differ materially from the forward-looking statements, including
but not limited to, the failure to realize the anticipated benefits
of the definitive agreements; the ability of WVR to obtain
government funding and/or required approvals for the project;
general economic, financial, legal, regulatory, political and
business conditions and changes in domestic and foreign markets;
the potential effects of COVID-19; the outcome of legal, regulatory
and judicial proceedings to which Nikola is, or may become a party;
demand for and customer acceptance of Nikola's trucks; risks
associated with development and testing of fuel cell power modules
and hydrogen storage systems; risks related to the rollout of
Nikola's business and the timing of expected business milestones;
the effects of competition on Nikola's future business; the
availability of capital; risks associated with changes in
accounting treatment or accounting standards; and the other risks
detailed from time to time in Nikola's reports filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on
Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31,
2021 and other documents Nikola files with the SEC. If any
of these risks materialize or our assumptions prove incorrect,
actual results could differ materially from the results implied by
these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements
speak only as of the date hereof and Nikola specifically disclaims
any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
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SOURCE Nikola Corporation; Wabash Valley Resources LLC