Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub applications seeking $7 billion in funds submitted across the U.S.

The Department of Energy’s (DOE) “Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub” application window closed on April 7, 2023. The program seeks to deploy $7 billion to stimulate the six to ten regional hydrogen hubs. In November, the DOE announced that 79 projects had been submitted to the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, which oversees the program. The projects sought $60 billion in funding, and represented $200 billion in total investment.

DOE encouraged 33 of the projects to submit their proposals by the recently passed deadline. Several organizations have released maps showcasing the locations of known hydrogen projects.

Among the applicants was the Northeast Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, an organization that includes New York, New Jersey, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and Massachusetts. The organization requested $1.25 billion in funding (the maximum allowed for a single grant) for a series of projects totaling $3.6 billion in investment and involving more than 100 partner organizations.

Limited details are available on the applicants and their proposed projects, as the DOE keeps applicant data confidential. The Northeast Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub’s press release said funding would go toward clean electrolytic hydrogen production for use in transportation, high-temperature industrial thermal applications, and communal utilities for heat, all representing hard-to-decarbonize sectors.

National Grid, one of the Northeast Hub partners, has hinted at their proposed project, which involves using offshore wind energy to power onshore electrolyzers for hydrogen production.

The Western Interstate Hydrogen Hub also submitted an application. The group is backed by state support from Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The Western Hub requested the full $1.25 billion to be applied to seven specific projects:

• AVANGRID will leverage its experience in renewables to produce hydrogen in New Mexico, both in Navajo Nation in San Juan County and in Torrance County.
• AVF Energy will produce renewable natural gas/clean hydrogen from biomass harvested as part of fire mitigation and environmental restoration in Utah’s Duchesne, Iron and Sevier counties.
• Dominion Energy Utah’s ThermH2 project blends hydrogen into a high-pressure natural gas system in Utah’s Juab and Utah counties.
• Libertad Power will produce clean hydrogen in New Mexico to serve off-takers across the Southwest in heavy haul transportation and power generation/storage, focusing on San Juan and Lea counties.
• Navajo Agricultural Product Industries (NAPI), a 275,000-acre Navajo Nation-owned commercial farm, aims to become energy self-sufficient and grow produce in greenhouses for the benefit of Tribal members in the Navajo Nation and San Juan County, New Mexico.
• Tallgrass Energy will produce clean hydrogen for the power, transportation, and other industrial markets through its eH2Power project in New Mexico and Front Range Hydrogen project in Colorado and Wyoming.
• Xcel Energy Colorado will produce hydrogen on the eastern plains of Colorado using wind and solar energy, supporting hydrogen use in the electric sector and hard-to-decarbonize segments of the economy.