Years ago, the now-defunct Nikola Motors attempted to build a hydrogen facility in rural Buckeye.
Now a Buckeye City Council vote Tuesday could lead to a data center being built on that plot of land.
Nikola, which declared bankruptcy last year, had planned to produce liquid hydrogen at the plant, which in turn could have fueled the zero emission trucks they manufactured.
Nikola sold the land in 2023 to Fortescue, an Australian-owned company that initially announced it intended to complete a hydrogen plant on the roughly 160-acre site.
But Fortescue sought a zoning change to the land from Buckeye, citing headwinds against hydrogen — like a reduction in clean energy tax credits in a massive tax and spending bill President Trump signed last summer.
Cepand Alizadeh with the Arizona Technology Council spoke in favor of the change before the council.
"The signs of a good tech company are ones that know how to pivot and they know how to read the tea leaves. Right now, as you know, this site is for the hydrogen production. But that’s not, moving forward, that’s not an ideal use of this plot of land," Alizadeh said.
Fortescue indicated in its application to city staff that a data center campus will eventually be built there.
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The company says the move will lower its operational costs and give it a more centralized location. -
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