The funding would support technologies that capture CO2 from industrial and power generation or directly from the atmosphere and transport it either for permanent geologic storage or conversion into valuable products such as fuels and chemicals.

The sixth opening of FECM’s Carbon Management funding opportunity announcement (FOA) will support the following areas of interest:

• Reactive carbon capture approaches for point source capture or atmospheric capture with integrated conversion to useful products. Reactive carbon capture is the integration of carbon capture with conversion to a product. This area of interest would focus on conceptual design studies followed by laboratory validation of reactive CO2 capture approaches from exhaust flue gas streams at electric generation and industrial facilities or from the atmosphere, with conversion of the CO2 into environmentally responsible and economically valuable products.
   
• Engineering-scale testing of transformational carbon capture technologies for natural gas combined cycle (NGCC) power plants. Testing under real flue gas conditions aims to achieve 95 percent or greater carbon capture efficiency and 95 percent CO2 purity, while demonstrating significant progress toward a 30 percent reduction in the cost of capture.
   
• Engineering-scale testing of transformational carbon capture technologies in portable systems at industrial plants. Development and testing of portable systems for transformational technologies would be conducted at a variety of sites, including oil refineries and petrochemical, cement and lime, pulp, steel and iron, and glass plants.
   
• Preliminary front-end engineering design (Pre-FEED) studies for carbon capture systems at existing (retrofit) domestic NGCC power plants. Pre-FEED studies of commercial-scale, advanced carbon capture systems at existing NGCC power plants or combined heat and power facilities that employ NGCC power generation.
   
• Pre-FEED studies for carbon capture systems at hydrogen production facilities using coal, mixed coal/biomass or natural gas feedstock. Studies to advance commercial-scale carbon capture systems that separate CO2 with at least 95 percent capture efficiency at new or existing hydrogen production facilities using coal, mixed coal/biomass/municipal solid waste/unrecyclable plastics, or natural gas feedstocks.
   
• Enhancing CO2 transport infrastructure (ECO2 transport): Pre-FEED studies for multimodal CO2 transfer facilities. Studies that support the development of viable and strategically adaptable multimodal transportation infrastructure capable of transferring CO2 across regional and national CO2 transportation networks.

The report, Fueling Up: How to Make U.S. Clean Hydrogen Projects Happen, draws upon the views and expertise of a range of sector specialists to explore what steps could be taken to realize clean hydrogen’s potential.

The report argues that the U.S. should boost exports to provide additional routes to market, bolster domestic manufacturing for hydrogen technologies, and prioritize ‘backbone’ infrastructure to reduce project risk.

The report says the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law have generated commercial interest in American clean hydrogen projects. But the legislation, and implementation of those regulations, come with complexities and caveats that require navigation.

One issue is tax credits. Designed as incentives to encourage companies to produce clean hydrogen, helping them transition from early-stage development and planning to construction, the arrival of proposed IRS regulations on Section 45V in December 2023 have been considered too stringent by many, offering up more questions than answers, the report said.

For hydrogen to be considered ‘clean’ and eligible for credits it must meet three criteria: additionality, time matching, and deliverability. These criteria require that hydrogen facilities cannot draw power from a source more than three years older than the hydrogen project, electricity-producing hydrogen must be generated within the same hour as the hydrogen, and the electricity source and hydrogen facility must be in the same geographical area, as defined by the DOE’s transmission needs analysis.

Troutman Pepper says that as a result, many concerned developers and utilities are halting progress, warning that it will drive up costs and make it harder to get projects funded and constructed in this nascent sector, as they await further clarity from the IRS on its finalized rules.

Meanwhile, off-takers are asking for improved clean hydrogen certification standards to offer transparent reassurance that they are getting the product they think they are. To stimulate demand, the Biden Administration made $7 billion available to support seven regional clean hydrogen production hubs across the country.

However, businesses inclined to follow this route, such as chemical and metal producers, oil refineries, and transportation and utility companies, are feeling uneasy about the potentially ambiguous nature of hydrogen classifications, the report said. Faced with directives to reduce their environmental impact, businesses are struggling with a lack of visibility, guidance, and uniform certification to verify how green any available fuel actually is.

The report notes that more states could encourage greater uptake of clean hydrogen, similar to what numerous states previously did with regard to renewable portfolio targets. For instance, only California, Oregon, and Washington have introduced low-carbon fuel standards thus far. State-led commitments along these lines could provide clean hydrogen users with greater confidence to support the development of a robust domestic clean hydrogen market, the report said.

Beyond the domestic market, some commentators within the report argue there is an opportunity to establish the U.S. as a clean hydrogen exporter, particularly to Europe and Asia, including in the form of ammonia. Industries globally are under regulatory pressure to decarbonize. Many countries outside the U.S. face greater challenges in relation to their regional energy transition policies, making U.S. hydrogen a potentially attractive proposition, bringing in capital and off-take certainty from around the world, while developing a spot market for clean hydrogen and related products.

On U.S. soil, report commentators have encouraged the building out of U.S. manufacturing facilities for hydrogen technologies, while prioritizing nationwide ‘backbone’ infrastructure to reduce project risk. Bloomberg New Energy Finance recently reported that 68% of global electrolyzer manufacturing is in China. In the short-term, this represents a reassuring level of access to equipment, but in the longer-term, the federal government has committed to growing domestic production to counteract that reliance.

Equally, interviewees argued that the government needs to unlock investments to support infrastructure, helping producers store and move their product more efficiently and economically. The DOE recognized this challenge in its June 2023 National Clean Hydrogen Strategy & Roadmap, where it reported that between $2 billion and $3 billion of investment annually is needed in hydrogen infrastructure projects between 2023 and 2030 to enable the U.S. to achieve annual production of 10 million metric tons by 2030.

“When compiling this report, we found that most commentators and sector specialists agreed about the vast potential of clean hydrogen to become a highly useful non-fossil component of America’s energy mix,” said Mindy McGrath, a regulatory and finance Partner in the energy practice group at Troutman Pepper. “And it’s been encouraging to see government incentives and financial support acknowledging that potential in an effort to drive both production and demand.

“What is less clear at present is how these mechanisms and stimuli will play out in the real world. Regulators are justifiably concerned about doing things the right way. That said, if the rules surrounding the sector are too onerous or ambiguous it is going to stifle progress. Major energy businesses – developers, producers, utilities, and investors – are rightly wary of this uncertainty. In this report we look at why there needs to be a concerted effort to demystify complex regulatory matters, and why clear guidance is needed to create a cohesive framework of strategies to properly advance the sector.”

Fueling Up: How to Make U.S. Clean Hydrogen Projects Happen can be downloaded here.

The program was implemented through Argonne National Laboratory and is designed to assist Ukraine’s nuclear power industry in growing its nuclear energy workforce. 

The two-year internship program was tailored to Ukrainian university graduate students pursuing nuclear energy-related degrees that specialize in areas such as small modular reactors, accident tolerant fuels, and misconceptions of nuclear energy. 

The students were originally supposed to spend the first summer in the U.S. taking extra courses and the second summer working with U.S. nuclear energy companies. Following the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the program was reconfigured so students could complete all of the necessary work in Ukraine. 

However, despite these challenges and travel restrictions, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine was able to recently send eight graduates from the three cohorts to the United States for a short visit.

The students met with government officials, took abbreviated courses at Argonne National Laboratory and toured various lab facilities to learn more about U.S. reactor technologies–specifically boiling water reactors and new small modular reactor designs.  

“It was an incredible time,” said Ivanna Lukovets, a 2022 summer intern of the program. “At the university, I mainly learned VVER reactors and almost nothing about new technologies like SMRs, boiling water reactors, and other new concepts in the field. This summer internship changed the direction of my life.”

“This nuclear Internship program is important for the Ukrainian students,” said Dr. Igor Bodnar, the principal project manager for the internship program at Argonne National Laboratory. “It helped them receive the most up-to-date information on advanced reactor technology, particularly U.S.-designed SMRs, which as we hope will be as important element of the future Ukraine energy infrastructure.”

Ukraine’s 15 nuclear reactors generate more than half of the country’s electricity, but the plants are old and so is the country’s aging nuclear workforce. Ukraine’s entire fleet of reactors is based on old Russian VVER pressurized water reactor technology. Six of the reactors were seized by Russian forces during the war and placed in cold shutdown. 

The grad students returned to their country to continue their studies and careers in Ukraine’s nuclear energy program as they work to pursue new technologies independent of Russia.  

The U.S.-Ukraine nuclear energy internship program was funded by the Office of Nuclear Energy’s Office of International Cooperation.

The newly released DOE Fusion Energy Strategy 2024 is organized around three pillars: closing the science and technology (S&T) gaps to a commercially relevant fusion pilot plant; preparing the path to sustainable, equitable commercial fusion deployment; and building and leveraging external partnerships. 

“With today’s announcements, DOE has shown once again that we are ambitiously implementing our U.S. Bold Decadal Vision for Commercial Fusion Energy,” said DOE Deputy Secretary David Turk.  “We will leverage the opportunities enabled by our world-leading public and private fusion leadership, including humanity’s first-ever demonstration of fusion ignition at our National Ignition Facility as well as major new advances in technologies such as high-temperature superconductors, advanced materials, and artificial intelligence to accelerate fusion energy. The development of fusion energy as a clean, safe, abundant energy source has become a global race, and the U.S. will stay in the lead.” 

In support of DOE’s fusion energy strategy, DOE also announced a $180 million funding opportunity for Fusion Innovative Research Engine (FIRE) Collaboratives. The FIRE Collaboratives are aimed at supporting the further creation of a fusion innovation ecosystem by forming teams that will have a collective goal of bridging the Department’s Fusion Energy Sciences (FES) program’s foundational and enabling science research with the needs of the growing fusion industry, including the technology roadmaps of the awardees of the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program.

The FIRE Collaboratives Funding Opportunity Announcement, sponsored by the FES program within the Department’s Office of Science, can be found on the Funding Opportunities webpage and is open to accredited U.S. colleges and universities, national laboratories, nonprofits, and private companies. Outyear funding for the FIRE Collaboratives is subject to congressional appropriations. 

In addition, DOE made a number of other announcements in moving toward implementation in support of the U.S. Bold Decadal Vision: 

• The Department released the agency-wide DOE Fusion Energy Strategy 2024 and a new FES vision entitled Building Bridges. These documents are closely coordinated and will guide future DOE investments in fusion energy research, development, and demonstration. As part of the Building Bridges vision, FES will develop a national fusion S&T roadmap to address the “how” and “when” of closing critical S&T gaps to commercially relevant fusion pilot plants.
• The Department announced that all eight selectees signed agreements to be participants in the Milestone-Based Fusion Development Program, which is designed to catalyze further private investments into fusion commercialization and is meant to help companies resolve critical-path scientific, technological, and commercialization challenges on the path toward a pilot-scale demonstration of fusion energy.  
• DOE released a Request for Information (RFI) on a proposed Fusion Energy Public-Private Consortium Framework (PPCF). The PPCF aims to complement the Milestone Program and FIRE Collaboratives by catalyzing and bringing together state/local government, private, philanthropic funding, as well as new partnerships, to accelerate fusion commercialization.

The proposed projects are the first selected under the Department’s Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative, an effort to repurpose parts of DOE-owned lands, portions of which were previously used in the nation’s nuclear weapons program, into sites of clean-energy generation. The initiative supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government approach to leveraging federal properties to support the buildout of utility-scale clean energy projects.  

NorthRenew Energy Partners proposes installing photovoltaics and battery storage to produce more than 300 MW of carbon-free electricity on an approximately 2,000-acre chunk of land on the INL site. Spitfire, the other selected developer, similarly proposes solar plus storage to produce 100 MW on a roughly 500-acre patch of land.

The developers will now start negotiations with DOE to enter into leases for the development of the proposed photovoltaic projects. Before leases are issued, DOE and the applicants will undergo a negotiation process, and DOE may cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason during that time.     

“Tens of thousands of acres of DOE-owned land across the nation are being transformed into thriving centers of carbon-free power generation,” said U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm. “Working closely with community leaders and private sector partners, we’re cleaning up land once used in our nuclear deterrence programs and deploying the clean energy solutions we need to help save the planet and strengthen our energy independence.”   

“President Biden directed the Federal Government to use its scale and procurement power, as the nation’s largest energy consumer and land manager, to support the growth of America’s clean energy industry and clean energy jobs, and do so in ways that are good for our taxpayers and our communities,” added Andrew Mayock, federal chief sustainability officer in the White House Council on Environmental Quality. “Through DOE’s Cleanup to Clean Energy Initiative, we will spur new clean electricity production, which is good for our climate, our economy, and our national security.”   

DOE announced the Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative in July 2023 in response to the directive in Executive Order 14057  and the accompanying Federal Sustainability Plan for agencies to use their properties for the development of new clean electricity generation.      

DOE will continue to engage and partner with industry, Tribal nations, communities, stakeholders, regulators, and others to implement a process for further development of clean energy projects on DOE land. 

As part of the Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative, DOE has also issued requests for qualifications (RFQs) to lease land at four additional sites, including the Hanford site in Washington; the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico; the Nevada National Security Site in Nevada; and the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. DOE plans to announce additional selections this year.    

DOE also plans to open subsequent RFQs for the INL site to solicit additional generation-ready clean energy projects for the land that remains available at the site. More information on the Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative can be found here.

When WTTC opened in 2011, it tested land-based wind turbine blades that typically spanned around 50 meters (164 feet). Today, the WTTC is testing both land-based and offshore wind turbine blades that are growing in size as part of the industry’s move toward bigger wind turbines that can harvest more energy at lower wind speeds. 

The facility was used to test the Vineyard Wind 1 project’s larger blades for over a year. Without it, the blades would have needed to be tested in Europe, adding time and cost to the process, DOE said.

The blades are mounted on the inside of the facility. Only one installation angle was previously possible, but now through a new wedge plate system, blades can be angled anywhere from zero degrees to 12 degrees.

“That way, we’re able to apply a load at different blade angles,” said Rahul Yarala, WTTC’s executive director. “We can adjust the blade angles to study different worst-case situations, like 50-year wind gusts or Category 5 hurricane wind speeds.”

The WTTC team strategically places clamps that apply loads, mimicking outdoor elements, at different points along the blade. The recent improvements have expanded the number of possible load points (points of potential stress on the blade) from 8 to 11, which is necessary to accommodate the increased blade length. 

The tests at WTTC simulate two decades of wear and tear over the course of a few months. 

“We apply a load over millions of cycles to simulate the full life of a wind turbine blade in the field,” Yarala said. “To do that, we need the exciter systems to be able to provide the required energy input.”

The new testing techniques can also simultaneously move the blade in both flap and edge directions, which is known as biaxial blade testing. While biaxial blade testing is not yet common practice, the facility upgrade has allowed WTTC to develop it further.

Up to 300 sensors placed along the wind turbine blade transmit data about how the blade responds to forces applied during testing. The WTTC updates also included hardware and software systems that can handle the increase in data that comes with longer blades. 

The funding is meant to support improvements and upgrades to university research reactors, as well as provide K-12, vocational schools and other colleges access to university research reactors to increase nuclear science, engineering and technology awareness.  

“These awards will provide greater access to nuclear energy instruction and remove barriers to participating in nuclear research and development,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Dr. Mike Goff. “By investing in our nation’s colleges and universities, we are empowering future generations to consider careers in nuclear energy.” 

The awards are funded under two DOE Office of Nuclear Energy funding opportunities. The University Nuclear Research Infrastructure Revitalization funding opportunity supports increased capacity for university-led nuclear research and development by establishing or improving university nuclear facilities, equipment, and other related capabilities through a consortium.  

• Purdue University will receive $6 million and partner with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, North Carolina State University, Ivy Tech Community College, and Tougaloo College Research and Development Foundation to support improvements to four existing nuclear research facilities and develop workforce training.

The University Reactor Sharing and Outreach Program funding opportunity encourages universities with existing nuclear research reactors to share resources and facilities with educational institutions that currently do not have access to research reactors. DOE is awarding seven universities $200,000 each for a total of $1.4 million in funding support.

• Texas A&M University will increase collaboration among faculty and students at the university and with educational institutions that do not own research reactors.  
• University of Florida will offer experiential learning opportunities with research reactors to K-12 schools, colleges, and universities that do not have access to research reactors. 
• The Ohio State University will expand outreach to students beyond Ohio, encouraging access to research and testing at their Nuclear Reactor Laboratory. 
• University of Maryland, College Park will partner with Morgan State University to offer reactor operator training and access to facilities for research projects for students who have been underrepresented in nuclear energy fields. 
• Purdue University will provide greater access to its research reactor, host annual reactor events, increase the number of reactor tours, establish science teacher workshops, and develop a nuclear reactor operation and control certification course.  
• University of Texas at Austin will offer K-12 educational institutions and community colleges access to lecture materials and research facilities, hold teacher workshops on nuclear science and engineering, and offer undergraduate summer internships. 
• University of New Mexico will improve public awareness and educational opportunities in the Southwest, particularly among underrepresented and disadvantaged communities.

To date, the Office of Nuclear Energy has invested more than $1 billion in total funding to students and faculty advancing nuclear energy research and training the next generation of nuclear energy leaders.

The announcement came from Former Michigan Governor and current Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, who toured Palisades Wednesday morning.

While the conditional commitment from DOE’s Loan Programs Office (LPO) demonstrates intent to finance the restart, Holtec must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental and financial conditions before the Department enters into definitive financing, DOE said.

Still, the momentum points to Palisades becoming the first shut-down nuclear power plant to be recommissioned in the U.S. The 800 MW facility in Covert Township would be upgraded to produce baseload clean power until at least 2051, subject to U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing approvals. 

“This is a triumph for the United States in our collective pursuit of a clean and dependable energy future,” said Dr. Kris Singh, Holtec President and CEO.

Holtec acquired the plant in June 2022 just after it was shutdown. In early 2023, the company for federal loan funding to repower Palisades. That was followed by a rigorous review of the loan application by the DOE and third-party advisors to consider technical, market and regulatory aspects, among others. Holtec officials said repowering Palisades was always going to be contingent on receiving federal funding.

Since the plant’s infrastructure already exists, the repowering project will not involve traditional major construction activities, but it will require inspections, testing, refurbishment, rebuilding and replacement of existing equipment, DOE said.

Holtec has also applied to reauthorize the Palisades operating license with the NRC. The company has submitted three licensing requests in pursuit of license reauthorization and anticipates submitting the remainder in spring 2024.

The Biden Administration is supportive of nuclear energy, believing it will play a critical role in reaching U.S. goals of a 100% clean electric grid by 2035 and a net-zero emissions economy by 2050. Since 2022, nearly two dozen states have considered legislation or enacted policies supportive of nuclear.

Support has been especially vocal for re-opening Palisades. In May 2023 a bipartisan group of Michigan lawmakers that make up a newly-formed nuclear energy caucus wrote a letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer expressing “full support” for the reopening of the plant. Whitmer herself has supported reopening Palisades as more solar and wind power infrastructure is built out.

Palisades is the first project to be offered a conditional commitment through the Energy Infrastructure Reinvestment (EIR) program from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). EIR can finance projects that retool, repower, repurpose, or replace energy infrastructure that has ceased operations or enable operating energy infrastructure to avoid, reduce, utilize, or sequester air pollutants or greenhouse gas emissions.

Holtec has already signed long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for the full power output of Palisades with rural electric co-ops Wolverine Power Cooperative and Hoosier Energy in Michigan, Illinois and Indiana.

In addition to the main 800 MW reactor, Holtec intends to use the Palisades site as the location for its first two small modular reactor units, which would potentially add an additional 800 MW of generation capacity at the site.

Palisades began commercial operation in 1971.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) on Oct. 13 named seven regional clean hydrogen hubs to receive $7 billion in federal funding, a long-awaited announcement for an initiative aimed at accelerating the commercial-scale deployment of clean hydrogen and driving down its cost.

Funded by Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the seven H2Hubs are located around the U.S. and aim to jumpstart a national network of clean hydrogen producers, consumers and connective infrastructure. Each hub will include clean hydrogen production, storage, delivery and end-use components.

Clean Hydrogen is expected to play a particularly important role in cleaning up hard-to-decarbonize sectors like refining, chemicals and heavy-duty transport.

Another major driver for clean hydrogen: Signed into law last year, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) includes a suite of tax incentives for project developers and is aimed at jumpstarting the industry. But the U.S. Treasury Department will need to determine how to account for the emissions from electricity used to make electrolytic hydrogen. Read our full primer with different viewpoints from the industry here.

The H2Hubs are expected to collectively produce three million metric tons of hydrogen annually, reaching nearly a third of the 2030 U.S. production target and lowering emissions from these industrial sectors that represent 30 percent of total U.S. carbon emissions.

In the power sector, hydrogen can be combusted in gas turbines for decarbonization or be used as a form of long-duration energy storage.

According to DOE’s previously-released Liftoff reports, clean hydrogen production has the potential to scale from nearly zero today to close to 10 million metric tons per year (MMTpa) in 2030 across the power, industrial and transportation sectors. That number could jump to 50 MMTpa by 2050.

Plug Power CEO John Marsh recently joined the Factor This! podcast and said he believes the U.S. could become a green hydrogen superpower. He specifically addressed the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program.

Here are the selected projects

Appalachian Hydrogen Hub (Or Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub – ARCH2): The Appalachian Hydrogen Hub includes West Virginia, Ohio , Kentucky and Pennsylvania and will leverage the region’s access to natural gas to produce low-cost clean hydrogen and store the associated carbon emissions (A process known as “Blue Hydrogen”).

The ARCH2 hub includes a diverse group of partner companies, including Battelle, Air Liquide, The Chemours Company, CNX Resources Corp, Dominion Energy Ohio, Empire Diversified Energy, EQT Corporation, Fidelis New Energy, First Mode, Hog Lick Aggregates, Hope Gas Inc., Independence Hydrogen Inc., KeyState Energy, MPLX, Plug Power and TC Energy.

The hub is expected to bring job opportunities to workers in coal communities.

“I am so honored to announce that today the U.S. Department of Energy has selected the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub for up to $925 million in federal support under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law,” said

Sen. Joe Manchin (D – W.V.) said the award “means West Virginia and the Appalachian region will be the new epicenter of hydrogen in the United States of America.”

Amount: up to $925 million

California Hydrogen Hub (Or Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems – ARCHES): The California Hydrogen Hub will produce hydrogen exclusively from renewable energy and biomass.

Through the application process, ARCHES identified several projects up and down the state—many shovel-ready—supporting three essential hard-to-decarbonize end-use sectors: heavy-duty vehicles, power plants and ports.

ARCHES is supported by over 400 organizations and individuals representing state and local governments, higher education institutions, business and industry leaders, organized labor and community advocates.

“Today we are moving from concept to reality – advancing clean, renewable hydrogen in California which is essential to meeting our climate goals,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).

Amount: up to $1.2 billion

Gulf Coast Hydrogen Hub (HyVelocity H2Hub): The Gulf Coast Hydrogen Hub will be centered in the Houston, Texas region. Large-scale hydrogen production is planned using both natural gas with carbon capture and renewables-powered electrolysis.

The Gulf Coast is well-situated for a clean hydrogen hub as it contains the world’s largest concentration of existing hydrogen production assets, customers, and energy infrastructure. This includes a network of 48 hydrogen production plants and over 1,000 miles of hydrogen pipelines.

HyVelocity includes seven core industry participants: AES Corporation, Air Liquide, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Mitsubishi Power Americas, Orsted, and Sempra Infrastructure. HyVelocity is administered by GTI Energy and includes organizing participants like The University of Texas at Austin, the Center for Houston’s Future and Houston Advanced Research Center.

“This investment represents a pivotal step in decarbonizing our planet and revolutionizing mobility, serving as a powerful example of successful public-private partnerships in scaling up hydrogen and advancing the energy transition,” said Katie Ellet, President of Hydrogen Energy & Mobility of North America for Air Liquide.

Amount: up to $1.2 billion

Heartland Hydrogen Hub: The Heartland Hydrogen Hub includes Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and aims to help decarbonize the agricultural sector’s production of fertilizer, decrease the regional cost of clean hydrogen, and advance the use of clean hydrogen in electric power generation and for cold climate space heating.

The hub includes Xcel Energy, Marathon Petroleum Corporation and TC Energy, in collaboration with the University of North Dakota’s Energy & Environmental Resource Center.

Xcel Energy expects to receive a large portion of the federal award for projects within the hub.

The utility plans to use existing and future nuclear, solar and wind resources in the Upper Midwest to produce hydrogen to blend into power generation, existing natural gas distribution systems and other agricultural and industrial applications.

Amount: up to $925 million

Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub (Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub – MACH): The Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub includes Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey. It anticipates developing hydrogen production facilities from renewable and nuclear electricity using both established and innovative electrolyzer technologies.

Anchor partners include Air Liquide, Bloom Energy, Braskem, Chesapeake Utilities, The City of Philadelphia, DRS, DuPont, Enbridge, Holtec, PGW, PSEG and SEPTA.

Amount: up to $750 million

Midwest Hydrogen Hub (Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen – MachH2): The hub includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan. Hydrogen uses include steel and glass production, power generation, refining, heavy-duty transportation and sustainable aviation fuel.

Hydrogen will be produced with renewables, natural gas and nuclear energy.

A sampling of members in MachH2 include ADL Ventures, Air Liquide, Argonne National Laboratory, Big Rivers Electric, Bloom Energy, ComEd, Constellation, GTI Energy, Holtec, Hydrogen Technologies Inc., Invenergy, NiSource, Plug Power, Rockwell Automation and several large Midwest universities.

“Our hub and the region bring an unparalleled supply of clean energy, significant regional hydrogen demand, heavy industry, and an ideal location at the crossroads of America – all of which was recognized by the DOE’s selection of MachH2,” said Dr. Dorothy Davidson, CEO of MachH2.

Amount: up to $1 billion

Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub (PNW H2): The Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub includes Washington, Oregon, Montana and plans to produce clean hydrogen exclusively via electrolysis.

Association partners include the Consortium for Hydrogen and Renewably Generated E-Fuels (CHARGE) Network, Renewable Hydrogen Alliance (RHA), Washington Green Hydrogen Alliance, Washington State University, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and many private corporations, utilities, and ports.

The hub believes its widescale use of electrolyzers will drive down the costs for this equipment.

Amount: up to $1 billion

DOE’s $7 billion investment in the hubs will be met by awardees’ combined cost share of more than $40 billion.

Before funding is issued, the Department and the applicants will undergo a negotiation process. DOE notes it could cancel negotiations and rescind the selection for any reason during that time.  

Learn more about the seven H2Hubs selected here.

DOE said the project can now move forward with fabrication and construction.

MARVEL, a sodium-potassium-cooled microreactor that will generate 85 kW of thermal energy, is expected to be completed in early-2025. The Department said it will be built inside the Transient Reactor Test Facility at INL with future plans to connect it to a microgrid.

MARVEL will be used to help in demonstrating microreactor applications, evaluating systems for remote monitoring and developing autonomous control technologies for new reactors.

DOE’s microreactor program recently finished MARVEL’s final design report, which included more than 200 supporting documents detailing the engineering analysis, specifications, requirements and drawings of the reactor design.

The Department said the 90 percent completion threshold allows for minor changes that might arise due to unforeseen complexities during construction and assembly. 

While the design won’t be considered 100 percent final until the microreactor is cleared for operation, INL is now permitted to award contracts.

Later this year, INL will work to purchase fuel for the microreactor, which will use a version of TRIGA fuel similar to what is used in university research reactors across the country.

Additional milestones include safety analysis, training and drafting procedures, followed by the construction and assembly of the reactor before fuel loading.

MORE HERE