Non-profit Connected DMV wants to make the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia (DMV) tri-state area into a hydrogen hub by leveraging its connections and vying for a portion of the $8bn that the US Department of Energy (DOE) will allocate toward the development of up to 10 hydrogen hubs.
Connected DMV has focused for the last year and a half on assembling a steering committee of stakeholders from across the hydrogen value chain, and quantifying the opportunity for hydrogen in the DMV, the organization's climate and energy vice president Richard Moore said.
The committee is comprised of representatives from hydrogen majors Bloom Energy and Plug Power, utilities Dominion and Pepco, environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council, offices of the US energy and transportation departments, law firm K&L Gates, aerospace companies Universal Hydrogen and Connect Airlines, the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, and universities Virginia Tech and George Mason.
Connected DMV and its collaborators are looking to low-carbon hydrogen production from numerous sources like nuclear, offshore wind and solar power, rather than sticking to one avenue, Moore said. The DMV is home to a diverse array of potential off-takers ranging from airports and large data centers to ports and commuter infrastructure, he said. The non-profit has seen interest from a fuel cell provider and an airline in decarbonizing DMV regional airports, and recently was approached with a waste-to-hydrogen opportunity, according to Moore.
Connected DMV's regional hydrogen assessment blueprint — which it calls the "Greenprint" — estimates that 3-4GW of electrolyzer capacity will be required to support 350,000 metric tonnes of hydrogen production in the year 2030. This might sound daunting, but is a "realistic aspiration", according to Moore, although he adds that work needs to be done to reach it.
No one will convert infrastructure to run on hydrogen without cost-effective supply — but there will not be any supply without sufficient demand, Moore noted. Connected's steering committee, therefore, involves stakeholders across the full value chain to build up both supply and demand at the same time, he said.
Connected sees federal funding, like the hydrogen hub pool and the energy provisions in the recently-passed Inflation Reduction Act, as a way to support hydrogen development in the DMV. The Inflation Reduction Act will not affect the group's strategy — but it might change its tactics and the ways in which some projects are funded, Moore said.
The DMV will compete against a growing roster of multi-state and public-private alliances including New York, West Virginia, Los Angeles, Pennsylvania and a diverse array of hydrogen stakeholders spanning universities, research groups, utilities and hydrogen companies for a portion of the funding allocated toward hubs from last year's bipartisan Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act.
The DOE is expected to release the initial funding opportunity announcement in September or October, but the timeline has been pushed back since spring and no certain date has been given. The department this summer issued production guidelines for the 6-10 hydrogen hubs, stating that each must produce a minimum of 50-100t/d.
