Cricket Valley Energy Center and GE Sign Agreement to Help Reduce Carbon Emissions in New York with Green Hydrogen-Fueled Power Plant
Agreement will launch H2 Roadmap project aiming to convert upstate New York natural gas plant to zero carbon emission green hydrogen
Dover Plains, NEW YORK, July 15, 2021 — General Electric (NYSE: GE) and Cricket Valley Energy Center (CVEC) today announced the companies have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to develop a green hydrogen technology roadmap (H2 Roadmap) and advance a demonstration project to reduce carbon emissions at CVEC’s combined cycle power plant located in Dover Plains, New York—initiating the first step toward the conversion to a 100 percent hydrogen fuel capable plant. The project is planned to begin in late 2022.
The initial step of the project will demonstrate the feasibility of converting the natural gas-fueled facility to utilize hydrogen, in support of New York State’s nation-leading Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which mandates 100 percent zero-carbon emissions in the electricity sector by 2040. The project will be conducted on one of three GE 7F.05 gas turbines currently operating at CVEC by introducing 5 percent hydrogen blended with natural gas for several weeks, leveraging GE’s expertise with combustion technology using hydrogen and low-BTU fuels.
An outgrowth of an industry forum sponsored by CVEC earlier this year, the agreement plans to expand to include leading hydrogen providers, along with consultation from New York State and federal agencies to develop policy guidance related to the production, transport, delivery, and storage of hydrogen. The H2 Roadmap will serve as a research and development plan for technical changes necessary to increase the percentages of hydrogen utilization at the plant as it becomes more readily available, while adhering to applicable operational guidelines.
“As a leader in providing reliable, dispatchable power generation, we enlisted GE’s extensive experience with hydrogen to support the development of lower-carbon technologies in the State of New York,” said Chuck Davis, President of Advanced Power Asset Management, which manages the facility. “With this agreement, we will begin to define a roadmap for the conversion of recently constructed natural gas-fired power plants to lower and zero carbon fuels as an important initiative to maintain system reliability as New York increases investment in intermittent wind and solar to meet the CLCPA goals.”
“We are pleased to work with CVEC to support their efforts in achieving carbon neutrality across their operations, while demonstrating the collaboration essential for a decade of action to reduce carbon emissions from the power generation sector,” said Scott Strazik, CEO of GE Gas Power. “GE’s gas turbine technology, building on decades of our leadership in low-BTU fuel operations including hydrogen fuels, validates the important role existing technologies and assets can play in reducing carbon emissions and combating climate change.”
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About Cricket Valley Energy Center
Cricket Valley Energy Center (CVEC) is a natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant currently in operation on an industrially zoned site off Route 22 in Dover, New York. CVEC is located on a previously abandoned industrial site that was a blight to Dover. CVEC has completed extensive investments in environmental remediation and construction and restored the site to provide opportunity for economic revitalization, job creation and tax revenue for the Town of Dover. CVEC is a competitive generator owned by a consortium of equity investors including Advanced Power, JERA Americas, Shoseki US Capital, and Development Bank of Japan, among others. EthosEnergy Group operates the facility and Advanced Power is the asset manager of CVEC.
CVEC’s 1.1-gigawatt (GW) power generation facility is powered by three GE 7F.05 gas turbines, three A451 steam turbines, three Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSG) and monitored by GE’s digital solution Asset Performance Management (APM) to provide real-time unified visibility into the health of the power generation assets. Since it entered in operation in 2020, it has been producing power for nearly one million homes.
About GE Gas Power
GE Gas Power is a world leader in natural gas power technology, services, and solutions. Through relentless innovation and continuous partnership with our customers, we are providing more advanced, cleaner and efficient power that people depend on today and building the energy technologies of the future. With the world’s largest installed base of gas turbines and more than 600 million operating hours across GE’s installed fleet, we offer advanced technology and a level of experience that’s unmatched in the industry to build, operate, and maintain leading gas power plants.
As recently published in GE’s position paper entitled “Accelerated Growth of Renewables and Gas Power Can Rapidly Change the Trajectory on Climate Change”, gas-fired power offers a unique path to low or zero-carbon operation through the use of pre-combustion modifications including hydrogen. GE turbines have nearly 30 years of experience operating on a variety of fuels that contain hydrogen, totaling over 6 million operating hours as hydrogen-fueled turbines using concentrations ranging from 5% to 100% by volume.
For further information:
Adam Tucker
External Communications Leader
GE Gas Power
Adam.Tucker@ge.com
Tel. +1 (518) 227-2463
Laura Aresi
Media Relations Leader
GE Gas Power
Laura.Aresi@ge.com
Tel +39 335 6978871
Nora Madonick
Media Relations, Cricket Valley Energy Center
Arch Street Communications
nmadonick@asc-pr.com
tel +1 (914) 393-4276