The US Department of Energy (DOE) aims to reduce the cost of manufacturing green hydrogen by 80 percent within 10 years as part of a broader call for new developments in the energy sector.
For the DEPARTMENT of Energy, that goal, while ambitious, is not hard to achieve.
DOE’s Energy Earthshots is designed to accelerate research and development into low-carbon Energy and call for aggressive efforts to address technological challenges and cut costs.
The first is to reduce the price of hydrogen production by 80 percent to about $1 per kilogram over the next decade, with a focus on renewable energy, nuclear power, and thermal conversion.
According to IHS Markit, electrolysis costs of less than $2 / kg will enable green hydrogen to compete with conventional hydrogen.
In December, seven European power companies, including Iberdrola and ACWA, formed their own alliance to push the cost of producing green hydrogen below that benchmark by 2026.
Green hydrogen is a game-changer that will decarbonize the heavily polluting heavy industry sector while providing high new clean energy jobs.
The “Hydrogen Bomb” initiative, part of President Biden’s American Jobs Initiative launched earlier this year, sets out a framework for developing a cost-effective, green hydrogen industry. The $2 trillion plan initially included several financial incentives for solar and energy storage developers. The additional framework will also fund demonstration projects for new low hydrocarbon systems.
As part of the call for the new development, the Department of Energy’s Hydrogen Program division released a request for information (RFI) on demonstrations that could reduce the cost of Hydrogen power generation, reduce carbon emissions, create jobs, and benefit disadvantaged communities. The division is seeking feedback from industry participants, investors, developers, academics, research laboratories, and government agencies on potential demonstration projects and is identifying the best places in the United States to build new hydrogen energy systems.
The Earth shot initiative follows a series of initiatives the Department of Energy (DOE) has rolled out in recent months to meet Biden’s goals of decarbonizing the U.S. power grid by 2035 and halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. The Department of Energy initially earmarked $128 million for research and development projects that will create new solar technologies, from high-performance modules to trackers and other components, with the intention of extending the life of factories from 30 years to 50 years.
