In support of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced nearly $62 million for 20 projects across 15 states to accelerate the research, development, demonstration, and deployment of next-generation clean hydrogen technologies. These projects will advance critical elements of hydrogen fueling infrastructure, develop and demonstrate hydrogen-powered container-handling equipment for use at ports, and improve processes essential to the efficient, timely, and equitable deployment of hydrogen technologies. Among the selected projects are innovative, first-of-a-kind efforts to improve community engagement and ensure the benefits of the clean energy revolution are felt by all Americans. Building a strong and equitable domestic clean hydrogen economy is a key pillar of President Biden and Vice President Harris’ plan to strengthen America’s economic competitiveness, create new good-paying, high-quality jobs, and slash harmful emissions that jeopardize public health and pollute local ecosystems.
“Under President Biden and Vice President Harris, America is leading the world in the development and deployment of clean hydrogen—a versatile fuel critical to reducing emissions from the most energy-intensive and polluting sectors of our economy,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “Today’s announcement builds on the historic clean hydrogen investments made possible by the Investing in America agenda and will help deliver new economic opportunities across the nation while also reinforcing America’s global leadership in clean energy technologies for generations to come.”
Today’s announcement supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s vision of an affordable clean hydrogen economy that creates tens of thousands of high-quality jobs while tackling the climate crisis. This vision is embodied in the U.S. National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap, which is being implemented through a whole-of-government approach coordinated by the Hydrogen Interagency Task Force. These investments support several end-uses for clean hydrogen, and will become an important part of the DOE Hydrogen Program’s broad portfolio of research, development, and demonstration activities. They will work together with DOE’s Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs and tax incentives in President Biden’s historic Inflation Reduction Act to accelerate progress toward a thriving clean hydrogen economy.
Clean hydrogen is a flexible energy carrier and an essential input to several important chemical processes, such as fertilizer production and steelmaking. It can be produced from a diverse mix of domestic clean energy resources, including renewables, nuclear, and fossil resources with safe and responsible carbon capture. Its unique characteristics will help substantially reduce harmful emissions from some of the hardest-to-decarbonize sectors of the economy, such as chemical and industrial processes and heavy-duty transportation, while helping tackle the climate crisis. It could also be used as a form of long-duration energy storage to support the expansion of renewable power. By enabling the development of diverse, domestic clean energy pathways across multiple sectors of the economy, clean hydrogen will strengthen American energy independence and add to the nearly 16 million jobs created across the American economy since President Biden and Vice President Harris took office in January 2021.
Building a Strong Domestic Clean Hydrogen Industry
DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO) will manage the selected projects, which span the following five topic areas:
- Components for Hydrogen Fueling of Medium- and Heavy-Duty (MD/HD) Vehicles (four projects, $8.5 million). Selected projects will develop advanced components to enable gaseous and liquid hydrogen fueling for medium- and heavy-duty hydrogen-powered vehicles.
- Standardized Hydrogen Refueling Station of the Future (four projects, $40 million). Selected projects will develop and demonstrate a low-cost, standardized, and replicable advanced “hydrogen fueling station of the future”—one that can meet the needs of commercial-scale MD/HD truck fueling.
- Hydrogen Fuel Cell-Powered Port Equipment (one project, $2.5 million). Selected project will design, develop, and demonstrate a hydrogen fuel cell “top loader” (for handling containers) and a mobile refueler at the Port of Oakland.
- Enabling Permitting and Safety for Hydrogen Deployment (seven projects, $7 million). Selected projects will identify the primary challenges to siting, permitting, and installation across the value chain from hydrogen production through end-use, and explore opportunities to address them.
- Equitable Hydrogen Technology Community Engagement (four projects, $4 million). Selected projects will improve the capacity of DOE and DOE-funded projects to conduct effective community-engagement activities. With funding from HFTO and DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, these projects will engage directly with disadvantaged communities to help DOE gain a better understanding of their concerns and provide them with important information about hydrogen and related technologies, as well as develop lessons learned and best practices on Community Benefits Plans.
Ensuring the Benefits of Our Clean Energy Future Reach Every American
By improving technologies for key clean hydrogen applications and helping to spur deployment while ensuring safety and equity, these projects will support and reinforce the long-term viability of DOE’s Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs and other commercial-scale hydrogen installations. Projects on permitting, siting, and environmental justice also align with key priorities of the Hydrogen Interagency Task Force as pursued by its “Infrastructure, Siting, and Permitting” working group and “Workforce, Equity, and Justice” crosscutting team.
As part of President Biden’s and Vice President Harris’ efforts to build an equitable and inclusive clean energy future, all of the projects in the first four topic areas are expected to develop and ultimately implement comprehensive Community Benefits Plans (CBPs), while the remaining projects in the last topic area will focus on how to effectively develop CBPs as part of their community engagement efforts. CBPs ensure that selectees meaningfully engage with community and labor stakeholders to create good-paying jobs and improve the well-being of residents and workers. In support of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 initiative, over $14 million of the announced funding is dedicated to community benefits and over 20 minority serving institutions are listed as project partners. Seven of the selected projects focus on the permitting and safety of hydrogen infrastructure, with four additional projects developing best practices for community benefits plans by meaningfully engaging with local disadvantaged communities.
Selection for award negotiations is not a commitment by DOE to issue an award or provide funding. Before funding is issued, DOE and the selectees will undergo a negotiation process, and DOE may cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason during that time.
