Four Western States Sign MOU To Develop A Regional Hydrogen Hub

by Peter Maloney
APPA News
March 9, 2022

The governors of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming have joined forces in signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the development of a regional clean hydrogen hubs.

Under the MOU the states agreed to compete jointly for a portion of the $8 billion allocated in the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for hydrogen hubs.

The MOU calls for the governors to work together to develop a response to the request for proposals (RFP) that the Department of Energy (DOE) is expected to issue by May 2022 for development of four or more regional hydrogen hubs and to collaborate on the response to the request for information (RFI) issued Feb. 15, 2022 pursuant to the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Each of the states also said the joint proposal would be the only proposal they would participate in for a hydrogen hub and that they will not submit their own standalone proposal in cooperation with other states or entities other than the signatories of the MOU. If all the signatories of the MOU agree, other Western states may be added to the MOU.

The MOU calls for each of the four states to appoint up to three representatives to a workgroup, who will coordinate the states’ collective work on development of the regional hydrogen hub proposals.

At least two of the three representatives to the workgroup shall be employees or representatives of a state agency, official board, or other state body or research institution in the respective states.

The aim of the workgroup will be to develop a multi-state action proposal to accelerate commercialization of, and demonstrate the production, processing, delivery, storage, and end-use of clean hydrogen.

The signatories further agreed that any external written communication about the regional Hydrogen Hub collaboration would be shared with the workgroup in advance.

The governors said the four signatory states of the MOU are uniquely situated to become a clean hydrogen hub because of their high-quality wind, solar, biomass, natural gas, and other energy resources, as well as their “world-leading national labs and academic institutions” and multiple industrial operations and large urban areas that could potentially be early adopters of clean hydrogen technologies.

Several West Coast utilities, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and Douglas County PUD in Washington, have recently embarked on projects aimed at furthering the feasibility of using hydrogen fuels to offset the use of traditional fossil fuels.

Separately, the DOE last June launched an effort to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by 80 percent to $1 per kilogram, from about $5 per kilogram, in one decade.

To help public power utilities understand the potential – and the limitations – of hydrogen, and why they should get involved, we developed Understanding Hydrogen: Trends and Use Cases.

To help public power utilities understand the potential — and the limitations — of hydrogen, and why they should get involved, the American Public Power Association developed Understanding Hydrogen: Trends and Use Cases.