Major utilities in the southeast are pooling together to compete for a slice of the $8 billion in new federal funding for regional hydrogen hubs, which Congress appropriated to expand the alternative energy source.
The coalition of utilities, which includes Duke Energy and the Tennessee Valley Authority, announced intentions Tuesday to pitch the Department of Energy on the establishment of a six-state “Southeast Hydrogen Hub” to serve the region.
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The hub would span Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and utilities would work together to develop “scalable, integrated projects at key locations across the entire Southeast in support of these carbon-reduction goals,” according to an announcement from TVA.
“Duke Energy is excited to work with our peers to explore this funding opportunity, which is vital to our industry-leading clean energy transformation for our customers and our communities,” said Swati Daji, Duke Energy’s senior vice president of enterprise strategy and planning. “A Southeast hydrogen hub will provide economic and workforce-development benefits that will extend well beyond the timeline for these projects.”
Southern Company and Dominion Energy are among the other notable members.
Hydrogen is a significant component of government and corporate strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the manufacturing and power sectors, as well as in transportation.
Hydrogen is used for industrial processes and can store energy inside fuel cells. It can also be burned to generate electricity without generating carbon emissions.
Congress allocated $8 billion in the bipartisan infrastructure law, passed last November, to the Energy Department to create between six and 10 regional hydrogen hubs. Hubs will “create networks of hydrogen producers, consumers, and local connective infrastructure to accelerate the use of hydrogen as a clean energy carrier that can deliver or store tremendous amounts of energy,” according to the department.
The DOE opened applications for the program on Sept. 22. It also released a draft clean hydrogen production standard to govern the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions associated with hydrogen production for prospective recipients of hub funding.
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Hydrogen is typically produced from natural gas, a fossil fuel, through an energy-intensive process known as steam methane reforming, and some environmental groups oppose the expansion of hydrogen on the grounds that it facilitates more natural gas production.
The standard establishes a threshold target of emissions intensity to encourage projects to produce hydrogen using carbon-free energy sources, such as renewables or nuclear, or to equip facilities using fossil fuels with carbon capture technologies.
