The U.S. Department of Energy has gone on to announce $750m for 52 projects throughout the 24 states so as to reduce the cost when it comes to clean hydrogen.
It is well to be noted that the clean hydrogen projects, which happen to be funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of President Biden, will go on to help advance electrolysis technologies and, at the same time, enhance manufacturing as well as recycling capabilities.
Apparently, this investment reinforces the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government way so as to accelerate the rollout of green hydrogen, which has been laid out in the U.S. National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap.
The projects are most likely to enable US manufacturing capabilities so as to produce 14 gigawatts of fuel cells every year and ten gigawatts of electrolysers annually. This apparently happens to be enough to power 15% of medium- and heavy-duty trucks sold each year and to come up with another 1.3 million tons of clean hydrogen every year.
It is worth noting that advancing clean hydrogen happens to be a prominent component of President Biden’s plan so as to tackle the issues and, at the same time, strengthen the US’s manufacturing as well as industrial competitiveness.
According to Jennifer Granholm,  US Secretary of Energy, the Biden-Harris Administration is throttling an American-led clean hydrogen economy that is delivering good-paying, high-quality jobs as well as accelerating a manufacturing renaissance in communities throughout America.
She adds that the projects that have been announced happen to be funded by the President’s Investing in America agenda and are going to supercharge the progress as well as ensure their leadership in clean hydrogen, which is indeed going to be felt across the nation for times to come.
Making energy independence more robust
Clean hydrogen will go on to play a vital role in decreasing emissions from the US’s most energy-insensitive sectors, like heavy-duty transportation, as well as chemical processes such as fertilizer production.
The fact is that it is also set to broaden clean electricity by way of offering a means for long-duration energy storage as well as providing flexibility for all kinds of clean power generation.
Hydrogen development will speed up the US manufacturing boom by enabling the development when it comes to diverse as well as domestic clean energy pathways throughout multiple sectors.
The clean hydrogen projects
The projects, which happened to be managed by DOE’s Hydrogen as well as Fuel Cell Technologies Office, go on to represent first phase when it comes to executing the two provisions of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Such provisions go on to authorize $1bn for research, development, demonstration, and rollout activities so as to reduce the cost of green hydrogen, which happens to be produced by electrolysis. $500 million is again allocated in terms of research, development, along with demonstration of processes and technologies that are enhanced for manufacturing and recycling clean hydrogen systems, as well as materials.
It is well to be noted that the projects will advance clean hydrogen technology across the following areas:
Low-cost, high-throughput electrolyser manufacturing with 8 projects costing $316 million
Electrolyser components as well as supply chain development, with 10 projects standing at $81 million
Advanced technology along with component development, with 18 projects standing at $72 million
Advanced manufacturing of fell cell assemblies as well as stacks, with 5 projects standing at $150 million
Fuel cell supply chain development, with 10 projects standing at $82 million
Recovery as well as recycling consortium with 1 project standing at $50 million
Advantages of the projects
The investments, which go on to total $1.6 billion, are all set to create over 1,500 jobs and indirectly come up with more jobs due to the resulting economic activity.
The fact is that the projects are bound to improve the business case for making use of green hydrogen in heavy-duty transportation, industrial applications, as well as energy storage mediums by way of decreasing the costs of electrolysers as well as fuel cells.
Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs and other emerging commercial-scale deployments of the DOE will get the support for long-term viability.
Moreover, by way of reducing costs as well as helping to speed up the adoption of green hydrogen, projects look forward to decreasing the harmful emissions that specifically happen to be advantageous to the communities that are overburdened due to pollution.
