The US Department of Energy (DOE) is driving $40m into four hydrogen refuelling projects as part of a wider $62m funding package.
Planned for New York, Connecticut, California and Arizona, each project will receive $10m to develop and demonstrate “low-cost, standardised and replicable” hydrogen refuelling stations.
Aimed at supporting medium- and heavy-duty truck refuelling, the projects being undertaken by Plug Power, Linde, FirstElement Fuel and ZEV Stations, respectively will be supported by regional research institutions.
The next largest area of the funding package is for refuelling components. Four projects in Washington, North Carolina, Illinois and Massachusetts, could grab a combined $8.5m to develop parts for gaseous and liquid refuelling.
A further seven projects will gain $1m each to overcome permitting and safety challenges for hydrogen production through to end-use.
$3.9m and $2.5m will be headed for projects involved in community engagement and hydrogen fuel cell-powered port equipment.
Opened last December, the funding is aimed at advancing research, development, demonstration and deployment (RDD&D) of affordable clean hydrogen technologies.
US Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm, said the announcement built on the Biden-Harris administration’s clean hydrogen investments and would help “deliver new economic opportunities across the nation while also reinforcing America’s global leadership in clean energy technologies for generations to come.”
The rough road ahead of hydrogen refuelling
As of 2023, more than 1,100 hydrogen refuelling stations (HRS) were in operation across the globe1, a 60% increase in deployment from 2021 to October last year. Asian markets saw the most growth in the refuelling sector, with Japan, China and South Korea boasting nearly 800 stations in total, significantly more than Europe with 2501.
Throughout the second half of 2023, more than 10 countries announced plans for hydrogen refuelling stations, mainly in Europe1. The Hydrogen Council predicts that the number of hydrogen refuelling stations deployed will increase if government targets are realised.
This includes Japan and South Korea’s ambitions to expand their networks to more than 600 stations by 2030. Alongside this, the EU’s Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR), adopted in July 2023, mandates the deployment of a hydrogen refuelling station every 200km along the Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) and all “urban nodes.”
From 2030, hydrogen refuelling stations serving both cars and lorries must be implemented under AFIR, which recently announced that €120m ($127m) would be awarded to developers, as part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding…
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