U.S. Air Force file photo

A Central Valley energy project has received millions in funding from the California Energy Commission (CEC).

Mariposa based Yosemite Clean Energy LLC (YCE), a biofuels company dedicated to environmental stewardship, announced late June that it has been awarded a $5 million grant from the CEC.

This funding will support the development of  YCE’s hydrogen production plant in Oroville, California. Only two CEC grants were award, placing YCE at the top of a competitive field, according to a news release.

In October 2021, YCE announced it had secured the site for the green hydrogen and renewable natural gas production plant in Oroville, north of Sacramento. The plant broke ground in 2022,  and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2026.

Forest biomass will be converted into green hydrogen fuel once the project is complete. The plant will create over 55 jobs in the local community.

Green hydrogen is a critical part of the transition to a renewable transportation sector in California, and can fuel trucks, busses, cars, ships, and planes, while removing carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere  due to its negative carbon intensity, according to the release.

“We are thrilled to receive this funding, as it is a significant milestone in achieving our goal of producing sustainable transportation fuel while helping the rural forest and farm communities,” said Thomas Hobby, CEO of Yosemite Clean Energy. “The grant presents us with an invaluable opportunity to continue to establish our first biofuels plant in California.”

YCE will utilize Austrian-based gasification technology commercialized by biomass power plans developer Repotec to produce commercial-scale, carbon-negative green fuels.

California has an estimated 35 million tons of waste woody biomass available annually, currently left to burn, decay and decompose, emitting immense amounts of greenhouse gases and black carbon.

Over the next 10 years, YCE plants to have biomass energy plants across California and North America.

Each of the plants will be locally owned by farmers and forest land owners who in return will provide food waste at the end of the orchard’s life cycle, or through sustainable farm management.