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States forming partnerships in hopes of garnering regional hydrogen hub
Although no Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) has yet been issued, interested parties have submitted responses to the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Request for Information from stakeholders on issues related to the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub FOA strategy. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law included $8 billion for four regional clean hydrogen hubs that will be designed to create jobs to expand the use of clean hydrogen in the industrial sector and beyond.
While the information collected through the RFI will not be published and is not a binding commitment to develop or pursue the project or ideas discussed, partnerships are already being announced in anticipation of the funding. Among states that have announced interest are:
- Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts have announced their partnership to develop a proposal,
- Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a hub,
- Louisiana, Arkansas and Oklahoma have joined together, and
- West Virginia has announced its interest as has a group in Ohio.
Press reports indicate interest from other regions as well, including Houston and North Dakota.
Each of the four hubs will be located in a different region of the country and use energy resources that are abundant in that region. A hub in this instance is defined as “a network of clean hydrogen producers, potential clean hydrogen consumers, and connective infrastructure located in close proximity.”
DOE envisions that the H2Hubs solicitation could be structured as a single, multi-year FOA with annual open and close dates for different “launches” over the FY 2022 – 2025 timeframe and has indicated that it plans to issue a draft FOA in the May 2022 timeframe. It will also hold a pre-solicitation meeting to solicit additional public input before publishing the FOA later in 2022.
Selection of the four hubs are expected to be made within a year of receiving proposals.
A Senate hearing last month, covered in the Digest, addressed the hubs in more detail, and more information is available in the RFI.
hydrogen, hub, rfi