News

A planned facility in Tuolumne County that will transform forest biomass into hydrogen has received a pair of $500,000 state grants.

Yosemite Clean Energy, based in Mariposa, is developing plans for a site on 45 acres in Chinese Camp near the existing Pacific Ultrapower site. The money from the California Department of Conservation is via a “Forest Biomass to Carbon-Negative Biofuels” grant program.

Under the presidential determination of June 6, 2022, those national needs include transformers and other grid components, solar photovoltaics, insulation, and clean hydrogen (electrolyzers, fuel cells, and platinum group metals). For these technologies, the DPA would be applied to develop and reshape supply chains for products in short supply, products presently supplied from foreign countries, and products that will be necessary to achieve national energy priorities.

DPA Title III tools can serve as complements to existing tools and authorities that are available at the DOE, such as lending programs in the Loan Program Office (LPO) and funding programs for regional clean hydrogen hubs.

Hydrogen technology development is shifting towards low-emissions solutions such as electrolysis, according to a joint study of patents by the European Patent Office (EPO) and the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The report is the first of its kind and uses global patent data to provide comprehensive up-to-date analysis of innovation in all hydrogen technologies. It covers the full range of technologies, from hydrogen supply to storage, distribution and transformation, as well as end-use applications.

According to a fact sheet of “key deliverables” from the summit released by the White House, President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador “committed to combatting the climate crisis” by working together in six areas, including methane emissions reduction, electric vehicle chargers and hydrogen.

Importantly, it has been pointed out that FCVs “may yet threaten Tesla” given the fact that Toyota, the world’s second largest automaker, has made consistent and strategic commitments to FCVs in collaboration with Honda. Therefore, major automakers in Japan and the world still find FCVs promising, and it has been argued that FCVs could be Tesla’s “biggest threat” in the future. In terms of recharging, for example, FCVs are superior to EVs because the hydrogen tank can be refilled in less than five minutes at a hydrogen station, whereas it takes about 15 minutes for EVs to be charged from 30 to 50 percent. It takes about an hour for EVs to fully recharge at a charging station.

But with new, long-term tax credits built in to the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) signed by President Joe Biden in August and the opportunity to apply for funding to establish ‘clean hydrogen’ hubs under the federal H2 Hubs programme, “green hydrogen production is poised to be the main driver and off-take route for offshore wind in the GoM”, said Aegir.

Cynthia Selin, an associate professor at the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the School of Sustainability at Arizona State University, believes that in 2023, as we continue to build more capacity for renewables, short-term and long-term energy storage such as batteries and hydrogen will be key.

“Continued investment and favorable policy conditions … mean that clean hydrogen (including hydrogen made using renewable energy) could see sustained growth, the development of necessary infrastructure, and better cost competitiveness,” she says. “In terms of consumer-facing developments in relation to hydrogen, in ’23 the most likely area of attention will be in long-haul trucking.”