Biden-Harris Administration announces a $750 million investment into the hydrogen industry
The Biden-Harris Administration recently made an announcement concerning their plans to invest $750 million into the hydrogen industry. This investment will be intended to aid all aspects of the hydrogen industry, including the acceleration of projects based throughout multiple states.
So far, it is clear that they intend to invest in fifty-two projects that are based throughout twenty-four states and they will do this with the intention to accelerate breakthroughs within the clean hydrogen technology industry. The investment will also help them to cut costs and support projects such as the DOE’s Hydrogen Hubs, as well as other large-scale deployments.
This investment which will be made by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is part of the Investing in America agenda that President Biden set out. The aim of investing in the fifty-two projects and reducing the cost of clean hydrogen, whilst also reinforcing America’s global leadership in the growing clean hydrogen industry, was announced on the 13th of March 2024.
The projects that have been selected by the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, have been chosen based on their ability to help advance electrolysis technologies, plus their ability to improve manufacturing and recycling capabilities for clean hydrogen systems and their components. Furthermore, the projects that receive funding are expected to enable U.S manufacturing capacity to produce fourteen gigawatts of fuel cells annually. This amount would be enough to power 15% of the country’s medium and heavy-duty trucks that are sold every year. It would also be expected that a further ten gigawatts of electrolysers every year would generate enough hydrogen to produce an extra 1.3 million tons of clean hydrogen annually. The funding being directed to the companies in this way, will lead to excellent support in over 1,500 new jobs.
This announcement effectively reinforces the plan that Biden-Harris Administration’s laid out in the U.S. National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap, which addresses the need to accelerate the deployment of clean hydrogen. This movement aligns with President Biden’s plan to advance zero or near-zero emissions and tackle the climate crisis, whilst simultaneously creating good-paying jobs throughout the nation and finally, strengthen both America’s manufacturing competitiveness and America’s industrial competitiveness.
U.S. Secretary of Energy, Jennifer M. Granholm, commented, “The Biden-Harris Administration is propelling an American-led clean hydrogen economy that is delivering good-paying, high-quality jobs and accelerating a manufacturing renaissance in communities across America. The projects announced today—funded by the President’s Investing in American agenda—will supercharge our progress and ensure our leadership in clean hydrogen will be felt across the nation for generations to come.”