U.S.-based industrial gases supplier Air Products and the utility and power generation company AES Corporation announced they would invest nearly $4 billion in a green hydrogen production facility in Wilbarger County in Texas.

The proposed project will consist of 1.4 GW of wind and solar power generation facilities that would power the electrolyzer to produce around 200 metric tons of green hydrogen per day, making it the largest green hydrogen-producing facility in the United States.

Air Products and AES will jointly own the project. Air Products will be the sole offtaker and marketer of green hydrogen under a 30-year contract.

The facility is expected to begin operations by 2027. If all the green hydrogen produced were to be used in the heavy truck market, it would offset more than 1.6 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.

“The new facility in Texas will be, by far, the largest mega-scale clean hydrogen production facility in the U.S. to use wind and sun as energy sources. We have been working on developing this project with AES for many years. It will be competitive worldwide while bringing significant tax, job, and energy security benefits to Texas,” Seifi Ghasemi, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Air Products, said.

Andrés Gluski, President and Chief Executive Officer of AES, said, “We will build more than 1 GW of new solar and wind facilities to provide zero-carbon energy for electrolysis and related production facilities.”

In its lifetime, the project is expected to eliminate nearly 50 metric tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to emissions from five billion gallons of diesel fuel.

The project is expected to generate nearly $500 million in terms of tax benefits and fortify the role of Texas as an energy leader.

The demand for green hydrogen is expected to grow rapidly in the United States in the near future, boosted by the net-zero ambitions of many states and corporations across the country.

Last December, AES Corporation acquired Community Energy, a U.S.-based solar developer, to expand its solar and storage project pipeline.

In September, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a $7 billion funding opportunity to create regional clean hydrogen hubs across America. The funding is part of a larger $8 billion hydrogen hub program funded through President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.