Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it will enter a tie-up to use a new large-scale fuel cell power generation plant and a hydrogen fueling station in California.
The Japanese automaker announced the project at the Los Angeles Auto Show, saying that the facility, to be known as Tri-Gen, will be the world's first megawatt-scale renewable energy and hydrogen generation plant.
Expected to begin operating in 2020, the facility will generate 2.35 megawatts of electricity and 1.2 tons of hydrogen per day, enough to power the equivalent of about 2,350 homes and nearly 1,500 vehicles, according to Toyota's statement.
The Tri-Gen facility, to be built and operated by FuelCell Energy Inc., will convert bio waste sourced from California farms into hydrogen, electricity and water.
Located at a logistics facility in the Port of Long Beach, Tri-Gen will provide the power needed to process Toyota vehicles arriving in the United States from Japan, the company said.
"We understand the tremendous potential to reduce emissions," stated Doug Murtha, Toyota's group vice president for strategic planning.
"Tri-Gen is a major step forward for sustainable mobility and a key accomplishment of our 2050 environmental challenge to achieve net-zero carbon emissions from our operations," he added.