Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (Clean Energy) operates as a renewable energy company.
The company focuses on the procurement and distribution of renewable natural gas (RNG) and conventional natural gas, in the form of compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG), for the United States (U.S.) and Canadian transportation markets.
RNG, which is delivered as either CNG or LNG, is created by the recovery and processing of naturally occurring, environmentally detrimental waste methane (bio...
Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (Clean Energy) operates as a renewable energy company.
The company focuses on the procurement and distribution of renewable natural gas (RNG) and conventional natural gas, in the form of compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG), for the United States (U.S.) and Canadian transportation markets.
RNG, which is delivered as either CNG or LNG, is created by the recovery and processing of naturally occurring, environmentally detrimental waste methane (biogas) from non-fossil fuel sources – such as dairy and other livestock waste and landfills – for environmentally beneficial use as a replacement for fossil-based transportation fuels at an affordable price. Methane is one of the most potent climate-harming greenhouse gases (GHG) with a comparative impact on global warming that is about 28 times more powerful than that of carbon dioxide. The company focuses on developing, owning, and operating dairy and other livestock waste RNG projects and supplying RNG (procured from third party sources and from its anaerobic digester gas (ADG) RNG joint venture project with TotalEnergies S.E. (the DR JV) to the company’s customers in the heavy and medium-duty commercial transportation sectors. The company has participated in the alternative vehicle fuels industry for over 20 years. The company is in a unique position because the valuable Environmental Credits (as defined below) are generated by the party that dispenses RNG into vehicle fuel tanks, and the company has access to more dispensers than any other market participant.
As a comprehensive clean energy solutions provider, the company also designs and builds, as well as operates and maintains (O&M), public and private vehicle fueling stations in the U.S. and Canada; sells and services compressors and other equipment used in RNG production and at fueling stations; transports and sells RNG and conventional natural gas via ‘virtual’ natural gas pipelines and interconnects; sells U.S. federal, state and local government credits (collectively, ‘Environmental Credits’) the company generates by selling RNG as a vehicle fuel, including Renewable Identification Numbers (‘RIN Credits’ or ‘RINs’) under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard Phase 2 and credits under the California, Oregon, and Washington Low Carbon Fuel Standards (collectively, ‘LCFS Credits’); and obtain federal, state and local tax credits, grants and incentives. The company serves fleet vehicle operators in a variety of markets, including heavy-duty trucking, airports, refuse, public transit, industrial and institutional energy users, and government fleets.
Commercial transportation, including heavy-duty trucking, generates a significant portion of the emissions of overall carbon dioxide and other climate-harming GHGs, and transitioning this sector to low, and negative carbon fuels is a critical step towards reducing overall global GHG emissions.
Biogas, the primary source of RNG, is produced by microbes as they break down organic matter in the absence of oxygen. The company’s sources of commercial scale biogas are ADG, which is produced inside an airtight tank used to breakdown organic matter such as dairy and other livestock waste, and landfill gas (‘LFG’), which is produced by the decomposition of organic waste at landfills.
Given the potential growth and positive environmental impact of RNG. To that end the company is pursuing development and ownership of dairy and other livestock waste ADG projects on its own and with partners including TotalEnergies S.E. (TotalEnergies) and BP Products North America (bp). Further, the company enters long-term RNG supply offtake agreements with well-known third parties that own RNG production facilities. Because its business transforms waste methane into a renewable source of energy, the company’s RNG generates valuable Environmental Credits under federal, and state initiatives.
The company sees the best use of RNG as a replacement for fossil-based fuel in the transportation sector. The most attractive market for RNG is U.S. heavy-duty Class 8 trucking and, based on information from the American Trucking Association and the company’s own internal estimates, there are approximately 4.1 million Class 8 heavy-duty trucks operating in the U.S. that use over 40 billion gallons of fuel per year. As of December 31, 2024, the company delivered RNG to the transportation market through 582 fueling stations it owns, operate or supply in 43 states and the District of Columbia in the U.S., including over 200 stations in California. The company also owns, operates, or supplies 25 fueling stations in Canada as of December 31, 2024. Critically, to generate valuable Environmental Credits, the RNG must be placed in vehicle fuel tanks. As of December 31, 2024, the company served over 1,000 fleet customers operating over 50,000 vehicles on its fuels.
Recently, the company has expanded its offerings to include hydrogen fuel for vehicle fleets and have won multiple competitive bids to build hydrogen stations for California transit agencies. As more operators deploy hydrogen powered vehicles, the company can modify it fueling stations to reform its RNG and delivers clean hydrogen to customers. The company’s RNG can be used to generate clean electricity to power electric vehicles, and it has the capability to add electric vehicle charging at the company’s stations sites, although the cost of adding electric vehicle charging capacity may be significant.
Principal Products, Services and Other Business Activities
The company’s principal products, services and other business activities are described below.
Fuel Sales
The company sells RNG and conventional natural gas, in the form of CNG and LNG, as fuel for medium and heavy-duty vehicles.
RNG is injected into natural gas pipelines, which allows RNG to be transported to vehicle fueling stations where it can be compressed and dispensed as CNG, and to liquefaction facilities where it is liquified and made into LNG. The company sources RNG from the DR JV, one of its jointly owned RNG production facilities, and purchase RNG from bp and other third-party producers, comprising over 150 supply sources, typically under long-term RNG supply offtake agreements. In 2024, its third-party sourced RNG consisted of 34% ADG and 66% LFG.
Conventional natural gas is typically sourced from local utilities or third-party conventional natural gas marketers. The company purchases conventional natural gas under North American Energy Standards Board base contracts on a spot market or short-term forward index basis or forward purchase contracts undertake-or-pay arrangements that require the company to purchases minimum volumes of conventional natural gas. Conventional natural gas is purchased on a normal purchase normal sale basis, as the conventional natural gas the company purchases is for physical delivery of the commodity to the company’s fueling stations for sale to customers.
CNG is RNG or conventional natural gas that is compressed and dispensed in gaseous form. CNG is typically sold by obtaining RNG from the company’s own RNG production facilities, third-party RNG suppliers or third-party RNG marketers or conventional natural gas from local utilities or third-party conventional natural gas marketers, compressing and storing it at a fueling station, and dispensing it directly into a vehicle. The company’s CNG vehicle fuel sales are primarily made through contracts with its customers or on a per fill-up basis at prices it sets at public access fueling stations based on prevailing market conditions. Through the company’s subsidiary NG Advantage, LLC (‘NG Advantage’), the company also transports and sells CNG for non-vehicle purposes via virtual natural gas pipelines and interconnects to industrial and institutional energy users that do not have direct access to natural gas pipelines. NG Advantage also has the capability to transport CNG from production facilities to pipeline injection sites using its fleet of 96 high-capacity trailers.
LNG is RNG or conventional natural gas that is cooled at a liquefaction facility to approximately negative 260 degrees Fahrenheit until it condenses into a liquid. The company obtains LNG from its own liquefaction plants and from third-party suppliers. For LNG obtained from the company’s own liquefaction plants, it supplies the RNG, sourced from its own RNG production facilities, third-party RNG suppliers or third-party RNG marketers, or conventional natural gas, sourced from local utilities or third-party conventional natural gas marketers, to the company’s liquefaction plants. The company owns and operates LNG liquefaction plants near Boron, California and Houston, Texas, which it refers to as the ‘Boron Plant’ and the ‘Pickens Plant,’ respectively. The Boron Plant can produce 98.5 million gallons of LNG per year and has a dual tanker trailer loading system and a 1.8 million gallon storage tank that can hold up to 1.5 million usable gallons. The Pickens Plant can produce 36.5 million gallons of LNG per year and includes a tanker trailer loading system, and a storage tank that can hold up to 830,000 usable gallons.
In 2024, the company produced 93% of its LNG at its plants and purchased the remainder of its LNG from third-party suppliers. The company sells LNG for use as a vehicle fuel on a bulk basis to fleet customers and through its network of public access fueling stations. The company delivers LNG with its fleet of 74 tanker trailers to fueling stations, where it is stored and then dispensed in liquid form into vehicles. The need to liquefy and transport LNG generally causes LNG to cost more than CNG. The company sells LNG through supply contracts and on a per fill-up basis at prices it sets at public access fueling stations based on prevailing market conditions. Additionally, the company sells LNG for non-vehicle purposes, including to customers who use LNG in rocket propulsion and oil fields, and for utility, industrial, marine and rail applications.
Sales of Environmental Credits: The company generates Environmental Credits consisting of RINs and LCFS Credits when it sells RNG for use as a vehicle fuel in the U.S. the company sells these Environmental Credits to third parties who must comply with federal and state emissions requirements. Generally, the number of Environmental Credits the company generates increases as it sells higher volumes of RNG as a vehicle fuel.
O&M Services: The company performs maintenance service on Clean Energy-owned and customer-owned fueling stations. The company’s maintenance program is backed by over 200 company employed service technicians and support personnel, an in-house 24/7 remote monitoring center, technician training centers, computerized maintenance management system and inventory warehouses throughout the U.S. and Canada. For maintenance services, the company generally charges a fixed fee or per gallon fee based on volume of fuel dispensed at the station.
Station Construction and Engineering: The company designs and constructs fueling stations and sell or lease some of these stations to the company’s customers. Since 2008, the company has served as the general contractor or supervised qualified third-party contractors to build over 470 natural gas fueling stations.
Grant Programs: The company applies for and helps its fleet customers apply for federal, state and local grant programs in areas in which it operates. These programs can provide funding for vehicle purchases, fueling station construction, and vehicle fuel sales.
TotalEnergies Joint Venture
The company has an agreement (the TotalEnergies JV Agreement) with TotalEnergies to create 50-50 joint ventures to develop ADG RNG production facilities in the U.S. The TotalEnergies JV Agreement contemplates the company and TotalEnergies have given each party a limited right of first opportunity to invest in ADG RNG projects they respectively originate. There is one ADG RNG joint venture project (the DR JV) in operation pursuant to the TotalEnergies JV Agreement. This project is estimated to produce up to 0.8 million GGEs of RNG annually, all of which is available to the company for sale to the vehicle fuels market.
bp Joint Venture
In 2021, pursuant to a memorandum of understanding the company entered into with bp in December 2020, the company entered into an agreement (bp JV Agreement) with bp that created a 50-50 joint venture (the bpJV) to develop, own and operate new ADG RNG production facilities in the U.S. Currently, there are five ADG RNG projects in operation and one large ADG RNG project under construction, which is planned to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2025. Collectively, the six ADG RNG projects in the bpJV are estimated to produce up to 8.2 million GGEs of RNG annually, and 100% of the RNG produced from these projects will be available to the company for sale as vehicle fuel pursuant to the company’s existing marketing agreement with bp.
RNG Projects
As of December 31, 2024, the company had three 100% owned ADG RNG projects under development, which are anticipated to be substantially complete between the second and third quarter of 2025. In accordance with the TotalEnergies JV Agreement, the company will provide TotalEnergies with the right of first opportunity to invest in these ADG RNG projects alongside the company. Collectively, the company’s three 100% owned ADG RNG projects will have an estimated RNG production volume of 3.6 million GGEs per year, all of which will be available to the company for sale to the vehicle fuels market.
Tourmaline Joint Development
In 2023, the company and Tourmaline Oil Corp. (‘Tourmaline’) announced Joint Development Agreement (‘the Tourmaline JDA’) to build and operate a network of CNG stations along key highway corridors across Western Canada. Under a 50-50 shared investment, the construction of these CNG fueling stations will allow heavy-duty trucks and other commercial transportation fleets that operate in the area to transition to the use of CNG, a lower carbon and NOx alternative to gasoline and diesel. The company is operating a CNG fueling station in Edmonton, Alberta, as part of the Tourmaline JDA and have since opened two more stations in the municipalities of Calgary, and Grande Prairie in Alberta.
Maas Energy Works, LLC Joint Development
On May 8, 2024, the company entered into a joint development agreement (the Maas JDA) with Maas Energy Works, LLC (Maas), granting it exclusive right to acquire, fund and participate in the development of certain ADG RNG production projects at dairy farms subject to its due diligence. Pursuant to the Maas JDA, the company will provide financing to funds the development, construction, operation and maintenance of approved ADG RNG production projects, and Maas will manage and oversee the development, construction, operations and maintenance of such approved projects.
Strategy
The company' strategies include promoting the adoption by fleets of the Cummins X15N natural gas engine; promoting the environmental and economic benefits of RNG for fleet vehicles; increasing supply of RNG through the development of new project investment opportunities, expanding its existing supplier portfolio, and leveraging its existing fuel network and customer relationships; empowering the company’s customers to achieve their sustainability and carbon reduction objectives; leveraging its management expertise’s; and utilizing the company’s environmental, health and safety, and compliance leadership.
Key Customer Markets
The company serves customers in a variety of markets, including trucking, airports, refuse and public transit. These customer markets are well-suited for the adoption of RNG and other alternative vehicle fuels because they consume relatively high volumes of fuel, refuel at centralized locations or along well-defined routes and/or are facing increasingly stringent emissions or other environmental requirements.
Trucking
The company estimates there are approximately 4.1 million Class 8 heavy-duty trucks operating in the U.S. using over 40 billion gallons of fuel each year. Because these high-mileage vehicles consume substantial amounts of fuel, operators can derive significant benefits from the carbon and GHG reductions associated with the company’s vehicle fuels, while doing it at competitive costs versus diesel. The company focuses on fueling more heavy-duty trucks, and many well-known shippers, manufacturers, retailers and other truck fleet operators have started to use RNG fueled trucks to move their freight, including, among others, Amazon, Pepsi Frito-Lay, FedEx, Anheuser-Busch, USPS, UPS, Kroger, KeHe Distributors, Kenan Advantage Group, and Estes Express.
California RNG Fleet Fund
Clean Energy’s California Fleet Fund is an incentive program to help California fleets transition to RNG. Fleets can receive up to $50,000 for a Freightliner or Peterbilt truck equipped with an X15N engine. These trucks must fuel at the Clean Energy network of stations in California. In 2024, customers contracted 37 trucks under the California Fleet Fund and the company expects 100 additional trucks to be ordered in 2025.
Airports
The company estimates that vehicles serving airports in the U.S., including airport delivery fleets, rental car and parking passenger shuttles and taxis, consume an aggregate of approximately two billion gallons of fuel per year. Additionally, many U.S. airports face emissions challenges and are under regulatory directives and political pressure to reduce pollution, particularly as part of any expansion plans. As a result, many of these airports have adopted various strategies to address tailpipe emissions, including rental car and hotel shuttle consolidation and requiring or encouraging service vehicle operators to switch their fleets to the company’s vehicle fuels.
Refuse
The company estimates that approximately 60% of new refuse trucks are capable of operating on RNG, up from approximately 3% of new refuse trucks in 2008. Refuse haulers are increasingly adopting trucks that run on the company’s vehicle fuels to realize operational savings and to address demands for reduced emissions from the public, investors, and governmental agencies. As of December 31, 2024, the company fueled approximately 16,100 refuse vehicles for customers including Waste Management, Republic Services, Waste Connections, GFL Environmental, Atlas Disposal, Burrtec, CR&R, Recology and Waste Pro, among others. The company also provides vehicle fueling services to municipal refuse fleets.
Public Transit
The company estimates that transit agencies in the U.S. consume approximately one billion gallons of fuel per year. Many transit agencies have been early adopters of vehicles using the company’s fuels, and approximately 30% of existing transit buses and approximately 35% of new transit buses can operate on RNG. As of December 31, 2024, public transit customers for which the company serves include the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority, New York MTA, Foothill Transit (Los Angeles County, California), Orange County Transit Authority, Santa Monica Big Blue Bus, Dallas Area Rapid Transit, Phoenix Transit, New Jersey Transit, Jacksonville Transportation Authority, NICE Bus (Nassau County, New York) and Washington Metro Area Transportation Authority.
Sales and Marketing
To some extent, the company experiences seasonality in its results of operations. Some of the company’s customers tend to consume more of its vehicle fuels in the summer months, when buses and other fleet vehicles use more fuel to power their air conditioning systems, which typically translate to an increased volume of fuel sold in the summer months. In addition, natural gas commodity prices tend to be higher in the fall and winter months, due to increased overall demand for natural gas for heating during these periods.
Intellectual Property
The company has a total of 13 issued patents active, including 10 patents issued by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (‘USPTO’) and 3 patents issued by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (‘CIPO’), expiring between 2027 and 2036. Additionally, the company has 12 registered trademarks, including 9 trademarks registered with the USPTO and 3 trademarks registered with the CIPO, expiring between 2025 and 2034, and 6 trademark applications pending, including 3 trademark applications pending with the USPTO and 3 trademark applications pending with the CIPO.
Governmental Regulation
The company is required to register each RNG project with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and relevant state regulatory agencies.
History
Clean Energy Fuels Corp. was incorporated in 2001.
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