Port of Chehalis commissioners last week approved a new lease with Twin Transit to build what is expected to be Washington’s first hydrogen fueling station on port-owned land off of Bishop Road near Interstate 5 Exit 74.
Aside from the creation of the hydrogen fueling station — which will include the installation of prefabricated hydrogen production and fueling equipment — Twin Transit will also help build the infrastructure to provide utilities to the surrounding parcels of land. That includes extending a new access road from Bishop Road.
“Twin Transit’s going to take a lot of heavy lifting to develop the infrastructure improvements,” port attorney Brian Kelly said.
Once the infrastructure is in place, the port anticipates further developing the property.
“It’s developing a new technology, hydrogen. And we’re focused on that — this tenant becoming an anchor tenant for other accommodating and similarly interested businesses in alternative and clean energy development,” Kelly said.
Twin Transit Director Joe Clark was also in attendance at the meeting. Currently, the closest hydrogen fueling station in the U.S. is in Sacramento, California.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s website also shows some hydrogen fueling stations in British Columbia.
According to Clark, demand for hydrogen fueling stations will continue to go up as demand for hydrogen buses increases. He said hydrogen-powered bus makers reported being sold out for 2023 and almost sold out through 2024 already.
“I was on a call yesterday with five regional transits from Vancouver B.C. to Vancouver, Washington. They’re all like, ‘Can we get some (hydrogen buses)?’” Clark said.
The project’s price tag is currently estimated around $10 million, according to Clark, and the lease will go into effect on March 1, 2023.
Clark stated Twin Transit is still currently evaluating project proposals from three contractors following its request for proposals.
“We’re interviewing those respondents right now and we’ll have hard numbers for you by the end of the month,” Clark said.
Since negotiations are ongoing, no firm date has been set for groundbreaking on construction.
“We do anticipate (groundbreaking) to occur in spring 2023 upon successful award of the contracts for the fueling station equipment and construction services,” said Rebecca Towner, Twin Transit director of finance and HR, in an email to The Chronicle.
Along with entering into the lease agreement, Twin Transit also supplied site plans for the land on Bishop Road.
While the 7,500 square foot building on the south end of the property will be constructed as the hydrogen fueling station, the rest of the site plan, which includes multiple 20,000-plus square foot office buildings spread across the north part of the property, is only conceptual at this point.
