Momentum Is Surging for Green Hydrogen in Clean Energy Future

• Author: David P. Clarke
• Position: Writer and editor who has served as a journalist, in industry, and in government
• Pages: 9-9

MAY/JUNE 2021 | 9

Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, May/June 2021.

Copyright © 2021, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.

The Federal Beat

As the Biden administration

pursues an aggressive climate

change strategy, a technology

that has received growing attention is

hydrogen, an energy carrier that Arshad

Mansoor, the CEO of the Electric Pow-

er Research Institute, recently said was

“always ten years away.” But not now.

In February, Mansoor told state energy

regulators that hydrogen’s moment has

arrived. at sentiment was echoed by

Joe Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry,

who in March, at a major energy con-

ference in Houston, urged oil and gas

industry ocials to seize the “huge op-

portunities” for producing and trans-

porting hydrogen in less “damaging

and carbon-intensive” ways.

Today’s hydrogen momentum be-

gan internationally, says Bill Zobel,

executive director of the California Hy-

drogen Business Council, an advocacy

group that is in the forefront of hydro-

gen development. While the United

States has been blessed with abundant

fossil fuels, other nations have been less

fortunate and relied

on imports.

But now, post-

COVID-19, import-

dependent nations

have decided to de-

velop hydrogen as an

energy carrier that can

be made from water and other sources

and “integrate it into their economies

in a big way” because it is applicable to

almost any economic sector, says Zobel.

With huge international investments

underway, “We’re now starting to get

into that.” In addition, with Biden’s de-

carbonization eorts as another driver,

“We’ll continue to see a lot of dierent

areas of the [U.S.] economy move in

that direction,” he adds.

e business council’s diverse mem-

bership, including utilities, automak-

ers, and other sectors, “all see oppor-

tunities” in hydrogen and are working

together to promote policies that will

open markets. at broad interest was

reected in the February 2 announce-

ment of a new 11-company Hydrogen

Forward coalition whose members in-

clude Shell, Toyota, Cummins Inc.,

and CF Industries, the world’s largest

ammonia manufacturer.

Hydrogen is “denitely enjoying

some interesting momentum” for sever-

al reasons, says Rachel Fakhry, a climate

and energy analyst with the Natural Re-

sources Defense Council. First, coun-

tries worldwide are adopting ambitious

climate goals, and hydrogen is seen as a

great resource to clean up challenging

sectors, such as shipping, aviation, and

manufacturing, to help meet national

goals. Second, the costs of renewable

energy have plummeted dramatically

and completely changed the dynamics

of hydrogen use. Cheap wind- and so-

lar-generated electricity can be used to

split water and produce emissions-free

“green hydrogen,” California’s main

target. And third, fossil fuel companies

“are really getting behind this” because

producing, storing, and using hydrogen

has a lot in common

with fossil fuels, thus

giving the sector a life-

line to continue having

a role in the emerging

decarbonized econo-

my.

While the conu-

ence of forces is creating momentum,

Fakhry says there are reasons to be cau-

tious. A fundamental issue concerns the

“forms of supposedly clean hydrogen”

that are actually being incentivized,

she says. Bills are being oered that

encourage a wide range of low-carbon

hydrogen forms rather than truly clean

forms. “So, we are concerned,” Fakhry

says, even though NRDC recognizes

the real potential for hydrogen to clean

up hard-to-decarbonize sectors. For ex-

ample, in long-distance aviation clean

hydrogen is “a leading solution,” and

it can play a key role in shipping and

long-distance trucking.

Another concern, however, is that

hydrogen is so versatile that it could

be used in sectors where it should not

apply, such as to heat buildings, in pas-

senger cars, and other applications. It

doesn’t make sense economically or for

other reasons to use hydrogen indis-

criminately wherever it can be adopted,

Fakhry says. Buildings can be less ex-

pensively electried, for example. How-

ever, groups are touting hydrogen for

expansive applications, thereby derail-

ing investments in existing cheaper so-

lutions that could be readily deployed.

NRDC’s goal is to channel hydrogen

into “really high-value” applications

that are more cost-eective than alter-

native solutions.

So far, the Biden administration has

been “pretty hazy” on hydrogen, ex-

pressing support for the resource while

focusing mainly on lowering the cost

of green hydrogen to compete with

natural-gas-based hydrogen, Fakhry

says. But the Department of Energy is

starting to pursue an interesting “pivot”

from its past interest in hydrogen-fu-

eled passenger vehicles to how hydro-

gen could t into a “whole economy-

wide decarbonization” eort.

It is “a million-dollar question” what

size role hydrogen will play in achiev-

ing the goal of net zero carbon by 2050.

But based on studies by NRDC and

others on decarbonizing the economy,

hydrogen will probably play a smaller

part than wind and solar. While rela-

tively marginal, however, hydrogen’s

role will be “absolutely key” in address-

ing aviation, manufacturing, and other

areas, Fakhry says.

Momentum Is Surging for Green

Hydrogen in Clean Energy Future

The energy carrier



electric power needs

to be stored

David P. Clarke is a writer and

editor who ha s served as a journa list,

in industr y, and in government. Emai l

him at davidpaulclarke@gmail.com.