Paul Rodden • Season: 2023 • Episode: 255
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Welcome to The Hydrogen Podcast!
In episode 255, The wait is finally over. The Biden administration has announced the winners of the $7 billion in federal funding. I’ll go over the seven winners and give my thoughts on today’s hydrogen podcast.
Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy the podcast. Please feel free to email me at info@thehydrogenpodcast.com with any questions. Also, if you wouldn’t mind subscribing to my podcast using your preferred platform… I would greatly appreciate it.
Respectfully,
Paul Rodden
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Transcript:
The wait is finally over. The Biden administration has announced the winners of the $7 billion in federal funding. I’ll go over the seven winners and give my thoughts on today’s hydrogen podcast. Okay, I’m going to actually skip the intro today so we can listen to a quick word from the sponsor of today’s podcast.
From water electolyzers to flow batteries and fuel cells, Nafion™ Proton Exchange Membranes play a major role in advancing the Hydrogen Economy. Through their high conductivity, superior strength, and chemical durability, Nafion™ membranes provide the performance needed to make green hydrogen safer, more sustainable, and more affordable. Learn how Nafion™ ion exchange materials support the decarbonization of energy across the globe at www.nafion.com.
Now back to the show. So the results are in the US now has its hub regions identified for the $7 billion in federal funding. This announcement has been on the forefront of all of our minds for months. And while none of the winning hubs are a surprise, the geographic dispersion is interesting to look at. But before I dive into that, let’s talk about what this announcement finally means to all of us that have been waiting some patiently, others not so much. But with this announcement, we can now expect to see the 10s of billions of dollars in private financing get allocated to project development. Along with that capital allocation. Job development can also commence bringing what could potentially be over 300,000 new jobs to areas that can leverage decades of experience in handling not just hydrogen, but also feedstocks and derivatives.
All while elevating the knowledge base to work with the new technologies being developed to ensure these new hubs are the cleanest energy generating regions ever witnessed. Now I’ve read several posts since the announcement Friday, and the overwhelming majority of comments include excitement, and an eagerness to finally move forward, as this is what the entire world has been waiting for. Some, however, took the opportunity to mock the decision for including natural gas source projects. I couldn’t disagree more. The clean hydrogen movement will not happen without leveraging the hydrocarbon industry and the immense infrastructure associated with it. Used properly, hydrocarbon feedstock not only delivers clean hydrogen, but also another vital resource carbon, which I’ve talked about before, it will be a critical element for our future technological advancements. And I believe the Department of Energy knows this and supports continuing to leverage hydrocarbons as the cheapest current source for hydrogen and allow electrolytic hydrogen to continue to develop. So now with that said, let’s dive into the selected projects.
Okay, first on the list is the Mid Atlantic hydrogen hub, or the MACH2 in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey, the Mid Atlantic hydrogen hub will help unlock hydrogen driven decarbonisation in the mid Atlantic. While repurposing historic oil infrastructure and using existing rights of way. It plans to develop renewable hydrogen production facilities from renewable and nuclear electricity using both established and innovative electrolyzer technologies, where it can help reduce costs and drive further technology adoption. As part of its Labor and Workforce commitments to the community. The Mid Atlantic hydrogen hub plans to negotiate project labor agreements for all projects and provide close to $14 million for regional workforce development boards that will serve as partners for community college training and pre apprenticeships. This hydrogen hub anticipates creating 20,800 direct jobs, 14,400 in construction, and 6400 permanent jobs, the amount of which of all this adds up to $750 million.
The second is the Appalachian hydrogen hub in West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The Appalachian hydrogen hub will leverage the region’s ample access to low cost natural gas to produce low cost, clean hydrogen and permanently and safely store the associated carbon emissions. The strategic location of this hydrogen hub and development of the hydrogen pipelines, multiple hydrogen fueling stations and permanent co2 storage also have the potential to drive down the cost of hydrogen distribution and storage. The Appalachian hydrogen hub is anticipated to bring quality job opportunities to workers in coal communities and create more than 21,000 direct jobs, including more than 18,000 in construction, and more than 3000 permanent jobs, helping ensure the Appalachian community benefits from the development and operation of the hub, the amount of which is up to $925 million.
Third on the list is the California hydrogen hub. Located just in California, the California hydrogen hub will leverage the Golden State’s leadership in clean energy technology to produce hydrogen exclusively from renewable energy and biomass. It will provide a blueprint for decarbonizing public transportation, heavy duty trucking and port operations, key emissions drivers in the state and sources of air pollution that are among the hardest to decarbonize. This hydrogen hub has committed to requiring project labor agreements for all projects connected to the hub, which will expand opportunities for disadvantaged communities and create an expected 220,000 direct jobs 130 and construction jobs and 90,000 permanent jobs, the amount of which adds up to $1.2 billion.
Next is the Gulf Coast hydrogen hub or the HyVelocity hydrogen hub. Located in Texas. The Gulf Coast hydrogen hub will be centered in the Houston region the traditional energy capital of the United States. It will help kickstart the clean hydrogen economy with its plans for large scale hydrogen production through both natural gas with carbon capture and renewables powered electrolysis leveraging the gulf coast regions abundant renewable energy and natural gas supply to drive down the cost of hydrogen, which is a crucial step in achieving market liftoff. This hydrogen hub is expected to create approximately 45,000 direct jobs, 35,000 and construction and 10,000 permanent jobs. The amount of this adds up to $1.2 billion.
Next on the list is the Heartland hydrogen hub. Located in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, the heartland hydrogen hub will leverage the region’s abundant energy resources to help decarbonize the agricultural sectors production of fertilizer, decreased the regional cost of clean hydrogen, and advanced the use of clean hydrogen and electric generation and for cold climate space heating. It also plans to offer unique opportunities of equity ownership to tribal communities through an equity partnership and to local farmers and farmer coops through a private sector partnership that will allow local farmers to receive more competitive pricing for clean fertilizer. The Heartland hydrogen hub anticipates creating upwards of 3880 direct jobs 3067 and construction jobs and 703 permanent jobs. This awarded amount is up to $925 million.
Next is the Midwest hydrogen hub located in Illinois, Indiana and Michigan. Located in a key US industrial and transportation corridor, the Midwest hydrogen hub will enable decarbonisation through strategic hydrogen uses, including steel and glass production, power generation, refining heavy duty transportation, and sustainable aviation fuel. This hydrogen hub plants produce hydrogen by leveraging diverse and abundant energy resources, including renewable energy, natural gas and low cost nuclear energy. The Midwest hydrogen hub anticipates creating 13,600 direct jobs 12,100 in construction, and 1500 permanent jobs. The amount of this award is up to $1 billion.
Last on the list is the Pacific Northwest hydrogen hub located in Washington, Oregon, and Montana. The Pacific Northwest hydrogen hub plans to leverage the region’s abundant renewable resources to produce clean hydrogen exclusively from renewable sources. It’s anticipated wide scale use of electrolyzers will play a key role in driving down electrolyzer costs, making the technology more accessible to other producers and reducing the cost of hydrogen production. The Pacific Northwest hydrogen hub has committed to negotiating project labor agreements for all projects over a million dollars and investing in joint labor management and state registered apprenticeship programs. This hydrogen hub is expected to create more than 10,000 direct jobs 8050 and construction and 350 permanent jobs the amount of could be up to $1 billion.
Okay, so a decent overview of each project and their local impacts. Now, obviously, they won’t be able to outline the detailed impacts of each project, as those won’t be known until more prospecting has been done to determine site location, and offtake opportunities as they get announced. And since these are hubs, all facets of the hydrogen supply chain need to be addressed, including generation, offtake, and everything in between. But there is something that stands out to me. As you know, geography is my background. And as I look at the map we generated with The H2 Advantage, there seems to be a couple of areas left out, those being the Southwest US, excluding California and the Southeast.
And that’s interesting to me. If you look at the Southwest US, which includes Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, there’s quite a bubble that will need to be overcome. Now, it’s possible but unlikely that the HyVelocity project will also pull hydrogen resources from the Permian Basin, and that could in turn, deliver hydrogen and derivatives into the southwest. And in the southeastern US. We know Georgia and the surrounding states were attempting to set up a regional hub in that area as well.
Apparently, they didn’t make a convincing enough case. But why that strikes me as interesting are the announcements by Bosch to build out their hydrogen development in the southeast, as well as the proposed Hydrogen Highway that Daimler trucking was said to be developing that was also supposed to be going through the southern United States? Could it be that the Hydrogen Highway has been shifted north, it’s possible. With so much development capital going to the northern states, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a highway developed from a Southern California, up into New England since the Gulf Coast will already have a massive hydrogen development underway.
All right. That’s it for me, everyone. If you have a second, I would really appreciate it. If you could leave a good review on whatever platform it is that you listen to Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google, YouTube, whatever it is, that would be a tremendous help to the show. And as always, if you ever have any feedback, you’re welcome to email me directly at info@thehydrogenpodcast.com. So until next time, keep your eyes up and honor one another.
Hey, this is Paul. I hope you liked this podcast. If you did and want to hear more, I’d appreciate it if you would either subscribe to this channel on YouTube, or connect with your favorite platform through my website at www.thehydrogenpodcast.com. Thanks for listening. I very much appreciate it. Have a great day.
