Seven states announced new development last week in the clean hydrogen space. The States of Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Maine, Vermont, Rhode Island, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts announced on April 7th the submission of a consortium proposal for a new hydrogen hub that will compete for the U.S. Department of Energy’s $1.25 billion share of an $8 billion in federal hydrogen hub funding.
The project named Northeast Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub was formed in March 2022 and initially included four states and about 40 organizations including clean energy companies, utilities and universities to collaborate in developing the submitted proposal. Three more states joined subsequently over the last year and in total, more than 100 partners signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the initiative.
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The total investment commitment comes to $3.6 billion and includes more than one dozen projects across seven Northeast states that advance clean electrolytic hydrogen production, consumption, and infrastructure projects, for hard-to-decarbonize sectors.
The proposal supports each state’s climate and clean energy goals and aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by transitioning to a clean energy alternative across hard-to-abate sectors of the economy. The U.S. Department of Energy will announce the awards in fall 2023.
The following guiding principles are included in the clean hydrogen hub proposal:
- Prioritization of clean electrolytic hydrogen production or hydrogen made without creating greenhouse gas emissions using clean electricity and water.
- Utilization of clean hydrogen as a complement to electrification efforts by focusing on hard-to-electrify sectors of the economy.
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- Critical focus on community engagement, safety, climate, environmental justice, diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility.
- Realize the unique opportunity to grow the clean energy workforce, focusing not only on educating and training new, underrepresented, and dislocated workers, but also leveraging existing specialized and skilled workers to play a critical role in building the infrastructure needed for a sustainable clean hydrogen ecosystem as part of the clean energy transition.
- Leverage – and growth – of the Northeast’s rich innovation ecosystem at scale.
- Collaboration on critical policy initiatives and incentives.
The U.S. Department of Energy, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, the state partners, and sub-recipient project partners will oversee and manage the large-scale endeavor. The full list of projects, locations, and organizations included within the Northeast Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub proposal will remain confidential until the U.S. Department of Energy completes the application review process.
