The Biden-Harris administration announced $750 million to accelerate clean hydrogen technologies

Washington, D.C. – The Biden-Harris administration, through the United States Department of Energy (DOE), today announced its intention to release $750 million in bipartisan President Biden Infrastructure Act funding to significantly reduce the cost of clean hydrogen technologies. Funding is a critical component of the Department’s comprehensive approach to accelerating the widespread use of clean hydrogen, and will play a vital role in supporting hydrogen deployment on a commercial scale. Clean hydrogen, produced with zero net carbon emissions, is a mainstay of the emerging clean energy economy and will be essential to achieving the President’s goal of a 100% clean electric grid by 2035 and zero carbon emissions by 2050.

“Today’s announcement is another exciting step toward lowering the cost and expanding production of clean hydrogen, a versatile fuel essential to the nation’s historic transition to a fair and secure clean energy future,” he said. US Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “By investing in the cutting-edge research and development necessary to make clean, market-ready hydrogen a reality, the Department of Energy is delivering on President Biden’s promise to implement an ambitious climate agenda.”

Clean hydrogen – produced with zero or near zero emissions from renewables, nuclear power or natural gas with carbon sequestration – is set to play a vital role in the future in reducing emissions from some sectors that are difficult to decarbonize. Our economy, including industrial and chemical processes and heavy transportation. Clean hydrogen can also support the expansion of renewable energy by providing a means for long-term energy storage and provides flexibility and multiple revenue streams for all types of clean energy generation – including the current nuclear fleet, advanced nuclear and other innovative technologies. By enabling diverse domestic clean energy pathways across multiple sectors of the economy, hydrogen will enhance the independence, resilience, and security of American energy. While hydrogen technologies have come a long way over the past several years, costs and other challenges of widespread adoption need to be addressed in order for clean hydrogen to achieve its full potential.

Combined with regional Clean Hydrogen Centers (H2Hubs), tax incentives in the President’s Inflation Reduction Act, and continued research, development, and demonstration in DOE’s hydrogen program, these investments will accelerate the technical progress and expansion required to achieve hydrogen in DOE. The goal is to hit $1 per kilogram of clean hydrogen within a decade.

Managed by the Department of Energy’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO), projects funded through this opportunity will address fundamental technical barriers to cost reduction that cannot be overcome by scale alone and ensure that commercial-scale deployments will be viable at lower cost in the future, High performance technology. Reaching cost-reduction goals will open up new markets for clean hydrogen—creating more clean energy jobs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and enhancing America’s competitiveness in the global clean energy market.

By enabling a clean, sustainable hydrogen economy, these investments will help reduce harmful air pollution and decarbonise some of the economy’s most polluting sectors – including chemical and industrial processes and heavy transportation. Reducing emissions in these sectors will be particularly beneficial to disadvantaged communities who have suffered disproportionately from local air pollution in the past. In addition, the National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap for the Department of Energy and President Biden’s Justice40 initiative serve as important pillars driving energy justice efforts by the HFTO and the Hydrogen Program.

More information about this DOE notice, including potential subject areas, can be found here.