The consortium comprises clean hydrogen economy developer the EFI Foundation (EFIF), commodity markets information specialist S&P Global and financial exchange operator Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).
The regional clean hydrogen hubs (H2Hubs) programme includes up to $7 billion to establish six to ten hubs across the country.
Over the next six to nine months, the DOE will work with the consortium and the H2Hubs on demand-side support measures that will facilitate purchases of clean hydrogen produced by H2Hub-affiliated projects.
The team will also develop an operational plan for how to administer these mechanisms once finalised.
The DOE said that ‘demand pull’ measures have been a valuable tool in the scale-up of renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar, arguing that “demand formation for new energy sources often lags the creation of new reliable supply”. Support is necessary to ensure the future of the H2Hubs, it said.
The consortium will support the design of measures to derisk clean hydrogen projects and increase demand certainty, crafting demand-side support agreements for clean hydrogen projects affiliated with the H2Hubs.
The aim is to unlock final investment decisions and catalyse the formation of a mature clean hydrogen market by providing improved offtake certainty to help hydrogen producers attract private-sector investment and end-use buyers.
The scheme will also lay the foundation for broader private-sector scale-up and use of the clean hydrogen market by providing price transparency and standardised contracts for the projects it supports.
The US estimates that clean hydrogen production for domestic demand has the potential to scale from less than 1 Mt/year to 10Mt/year in 2030.
If water electrolysis dominates as the production method, up to 200GW of new renewable power would be needed by 2030 to support clean hydrogen production – although nuclear power could also be used as a power source.
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