With the elections just a few months away, the US administration announced supporting 52 hydrogen projects in 24 states. They involve both electrolysis and fuel cells, with a view to scaling up and reducing costs.
The announcement was made by the Department of Energy. It says that 52 new projects are being funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. These $750 million will help to develop clean hydrogen and could also lead to the creation of 1,500 new jobs. The aim is to produce the equivalent of 14 GW of fuel cells in the United States (enough to power 15% of trucks sold each year, i.e. 50,000 vehicles) and 10 GW of electrolysers per year (enough to produce the equivalent of 1.3 million metric tonnes of green hydrogen per year and power 170,000 trucks, for instance).
The US DOE points out that clean or near-zero-carbon hydrogen is one of the pillars of President Joe Biden’s strategy to combat climate change. Their ambition is to get hydrogen down to 1 dollar per kilo.
Over half of the funds will go to electrolysis
The largest share of the budget (316 million) is allocated to low-cost electrolysis, with 8 projects. A further 81 million is earmarked for electrolyser components, with 10 projects, and 72 million for advanced electrolysis technologies, with 18 projects. The other major theme is fuel cells, with $150 million allocated to large-scale, low-cost production with 5 projects, and $82 million for the development of the fuel cell supply chain with a single project, eliminating toxic substances such as PFAS in the process. Lastly, a final 50 million recycling project to reduce the carbon footprint. This will enable a consortium to be set up, bringing together academia, national laboratories and industry.
The US administration is funding almost half of these projects, which represent a budget of 1.6 billion dollars. It believes that this support will encourage the deployment of hydrogen mobility, help to decarbonise industry and relieve the electricity grid by storing electricity from renewable sources.
Do you want to learn more about Belgium? Then our latest articles on the country should interest you. You can access all of our Belgium-related articles here.
Article written by Laurent Meillaud and translated by Mariem Ben Tili
