On Thursday, EV and hydrogen fuel cell infrastructure and automobile maker Nikola announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with OPAL Fuels, a provider of renewable natural gas for heavy-duty truck fleets, owned by sustainable energy private equity investor Fortistar. Per terms of the MoU, Nikola and OPAL Fuels will work together to develop, build and operate hydrogen fueling stations in North America, and promote the use of renewable natural gas (RNG) in hydrogen production.
The companies say they intend to co-develop and co-market hydrogen refueling infrastructure to accelerate the adoption of heavy-duty zero-emission fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV).
“This alliance with OPAL Fuels provides excellent potential synergies given their experience building and operating fueling stations,” said Nikola’s President of Energy and Commercial Pablo Koziner. “Today marks another important step forward in Nikola’s stated energy infrastructure plans and its focus on providing hydrogen fueling services to customers.”
“We are very excited to be working with Nikola to help fleets realize the potential of hydrogen fuel-cell trucks with reliable, cost-effective fueling infrastructure,” said Adam Comora, Co-CEO of OPAL Fuels. “Coupled with RNG as a fuel source to lower the carbon intensity of hydrogen, we see a very powerful combination for the future.”
To date, OPAL Fuels has built more than 350 RNG fueling station projects and has over 15 years of successful relationships with trucking fleets across the continent, reducing the carbon intensity of their fuel. Nikola’s Tre FCEVs for the North American market are slated for a 2023 launch from the company’s Coolidge, Arizona manufacturing facility.
The initial focus of the collaboration is on developing the infrastructure required to more safely and reliably serve the needs of large private fleets that utilize their own dedicated property fueling infrastructure “Behind the Fence.” Nikola and OPAL Fuels will also identify and evaluate opportunities to establish public access hydrogen stations.
The partnership will combine Nikola’s proposed FCEV bundled lease offer, which will include Nikola’s FCEVs, vehicle service and maintenance and hydrogen fuel supply, with OPAL Fuels’ experience in developing, constructing, and operating heavy-duty truck fueling stations.
Both companies say they plan to leverage OPAL Fuels’ growing portfolio of RNG supply to cost-effectively reduce the carbon intensity of hydrogen supplied by Nikola at the station, to meet customer sustainability objectives as they begin to transition to zero-emission vehicles.
Earlier this week, Nikola announced a $300 million common stock equity line purchase agreement with Tumim Stone Capital LLC, its second such equity sale to Tumim since June.
“The equity lines with Tumim, together with estimated cash and cash equivalents, will provide Nikola with access to approximately $800 million of liquidity at the end of 2021,” said Nikola CEO Mark Russell in announcing this week’s financing. “We believe this will provide ample liquidity for Nikola to fund our stated operational milestones through the end of 2022, which include the commercial delivery of BEV trucks as well as the start of road release and pilot testing of FCEV trucks.”
