FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Contact: Daniel van Hoogstraten, [email protected]
COLUMBUS, OH – Newpoint Gas today announced it has established Trillium H2 Power, LLC (tH2), which will be headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. The entity will own and operate clean hydrogen energy production and sustainable manufacturing facilities. tH2’s initial project and “the hub” for all future development will be identified as the h2Trillium Energy and Manufacturing (h2TEAM). The Complex will be located adjacent to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS) site in Southeast Ohio.
In addition to establishing tH2, Newpoint has completed their exclusive and right of first refusal property agreements with the Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative (SODI), expanding the acreage commitment from 80 to 250 acres. tH2 will be purchasing clean and remediated parcels formerly owned by DOE that have been deeded to SODI. SODI is the DOE-designated community reuse organization for the PORTS site.
“Finalizing the SODI property agreement for 250 acres which is required for the full development of the h2TEAM Complex was the final task that we needed to complete so that we could launch efforts to secure investment and financing of the project” said Wiley Rhodes, CEO of Newpoint Gas. “With the land deal finalized, Mike Knisley of Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council scheduled some very productive meetings for us with the DOE Loan Program Office and a private investment group in DC. We are now engaged with both organizations regarding assisting in development of the SE Ohio project.”
“Organized labor is working to ensure the PORTS reindustrialization creates good-paying union jobs and is transformative in a region that has been left behind for too long,” said Mike Knisley, Secretary Treasurer, Ohio State Building and Construction Trades Council. “We are showing how organized labor, private industry, and community leaders can come together to make a large-scale, job-creating project in the 21st-century economy a reality.”
Newpoint is working with local, state, and federal leadership to establish a regional hydrogen hub. Newpoint and its h2TEAM partners are evaluating the recently released $8 billion DOE H2Hubs Initiative funding opportunity announcement as a possible resource for these efforts.
“In tandem with SODI, Ohio University is proud to have been a partner in developing the vision and leading the efforts to reindustrialize the PORTS site since 2010,” said Stephanie Howe, Director of Energy Programs at Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service. “After more than a decade of work and collaboration, the project will become a reality – creating endurable jobs in the new energy and sustainable manufacturing economy for the region for decades to come.”
“h2TEAM represents a generational opportunity to reinvigorate communities that have been left behind as energy production and manufacturing shifted over the last several decades.” said Steve Shepherd, Executive Director of SODI. “By reindustrializing the former PORTS facility, we will be a nation-leading example – right here in Southern Ohio – of transforming a federal liability into a taxpayer asset that increases economic stability in struggling areas.”
Newpoint Gas was introduced to the project in 2020, and the h2TEAM project builds on more than a decade of work by Ohio University’s Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Service and SODI to plan for, develop, and pursue the redevelopment of the PORTS facility. In addition to Newpoint Gas, SODI, Ohio University, Babcock & Wilcox, and J.W. Didado, the partnership also includes organized labor leaders in Ohio and other organizations in support of the reindustrialization effort
