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					</table><p>The U.S. Department of Energy (<a href="https://www.energy.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOE</a>) has allocated up to $30 million to support the cost reduction related to extracting rare earths and other essential minerals and materials from domestic coal-based sources within the country.</p>
<p>The financial support, made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, aims to address the increasing requirement for critical minerals in the U.S. while diminishing the need for overseas sources.</p>
<p>These critical minerals, including rare earth minerals, play a significant role in clean energy technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and hydrogen fuel cells.</p>
<p>The process of extracting such substances from coal, as well as from coal waste and related secondary products, is expected to generate well-compensated employment opportunities in regions that have traditionally been involved in the production of fuel and electricity from fossil energy sources.</p>
<p>Starting from January 2021, the Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM) within the DOE has unveiled approximately $41 million worth of initiatives to bolster the exploration, identification, production, and processing of critical minerals and materials. These efforts are concentrated in regions with a history of conventional mining and fossil fuel production across the United States.</p>
<p>Among these funds is $16 million provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, designated for comprehensive engineering and cost studies. These studies are directed towards establishing a novel domestic facility that will focus on extracting and separating rare earth elements and essential minerals from non-traditional sources like mining leftovers.</p>
<p>The financial backing is expected to open up land and water restoration prospects while generating rare earth elements essential for powering a clean energy-driven economy.</p>
<p>As per information provided by the U.S. Geological Survey&#8217;s National Mineral Information Center, more than 80% of the rare earth elements required by the United States are imported from international sources rather than being sourced domestically. Despite this, rare earth elements are naturally present in various locations, including within the country&#8217;s coal and coal byproducts.</p>
<p>The announcement for funding aims to harness this typical resource to establish a self-reliant supply chain within the United States. This is deemed essential for the nation&#8217;s economic stability, advancement in clean energy, and overall national security.</p>
<p>The initiative&#8217;s primary goal is to financially support research for laboratory and bench-scale testing of both economically feasible and environmentally sound extraction, separation, and refining technologies. These efforts will commence with the exploration of non-traditional coal-related resources, ultimately resulting in the production of rare earth elements and vital minerals.</p>
<p>In March this year, the U.S. and European Union (EU) <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/us-eu-agreement-sourcing-minerals-ev-batteries" target="_blank" rel="noopener">agreed</a> to immediately begin negotiations on an agreement on critical minerals used in the electric vehicle (EV) battery supply chain. About the proposed critical minerals agreement, the U.S. and EU said such a partnership would further boost mineral production and processing and expand access to sources of critical minerals that are sustainable, trusted, and free of labor abuses.</p>
<p>In August last year, the U.S. government had <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/us-to-invest-23-billion-for-clean-energy-deployment" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued</a> a Request for Information (RFI) on developing and implementing a $675 million critical materials research, development, demonstration, and commercialization program funded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.</p>


US Allocates $30 Million to Develop Supply Chain of Critical Minerals for Clean Energy


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					</table><p>The demand for clean hydrogen (H2) is set to grow by 10 million metric tons (MMT) annually by the end of the decade in the United States, while it will rise to 20 MMT and 50 MMT by 2040 and 2050, respectively, according to the National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap released recently by the U.S. Department of Energy (<u><a href="https://www.energy.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOE</a></u>).</p>
<p>The roadmap prioritizes three focus areas to support the use of clean hydrogen across key sectors of the country— cutting the cost of clean hydrogen, strategizing its use in the highest benefit applications, and creating regional networks for clean H2 production in the country.</p>
<p>The roadmap establishes the potential pathways in using clean hydrogen to decarbonize diverse sectors through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law enforced in 2021, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/inflation-reduction-act-a-gamechanger-solar" target="_blank" rel="noopener">passed</a> last August.</p>
<p><strong>Focus on three power-intensive sectors</strong></p>
<p>The targets under the Clean H2 initiative align with the administration’s Justice40 initiative pledging at least 40% of the total <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/us-underserved-communities-550-million-clean-fund" target="_blank" rel="noopener">benefits</a> from federal investments in clean energy for disadvantaged communities.</p>
<p>The roadmap states that with the planned use of green H2, the U.S. can mitigate approximately 10% of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 as compared to 2005 levels.</p>
<p>The use of clean H2 in many of the applications within the three most emission-intensive sectors— power generation, industrial, and transport &#8212; can help reduce 40-90% of cradle-to-grave emissions by displacing the incumbent fossil fuels.</p>
<p>As of date, the industrial sector of the U.S. produces about 10 MMT of H2 annually in contrast to the global production of 94 MMT.</p>
<p>Most production is for petroleum refining, ammonia, and the chemical industry, for which the administration has around 1,600 miles of dedicated H2 pipeline along with three geological caverns— including the world’s largest cavern that can store 350 GWh of thermal energy, enough to power 1.2 million homes for a week.</p>
<p><strong>Challenges and resolves</strong></p>
<p>Complete implementation of clean H2 technologies across sectors faces roadblocks like scaling up the proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer. The administration has yet to define the steps required to commercialize PEM electrolyzers, crucial to H2 production.</p>
<p>Also, the lack of manufacturing at scale, the fluctuations in cost, durability, reliability, and the H2 distribution infrastructure are key challenges to address in the U.S.</p>
<p>Another significant challenge identified in the roadmap is the levelized cost of H2 which must be reduced. For instance, the cost of clean H2 using PEM membrane electrolysis can be over $5/kg when using renewable electricity.</p>
<p>The cost of electrolysis depends heavily on the cost of electricity used. Hydrogen from low-volume PEM electrolysis requires an 80% reduction in cost to achieve the Hydrogen Shot goals and to be competitive.</p>
<p>The clean H2 strategy further states that displacing H2 used at current petroleum refineries with clean H2 can reduce the life cycle emissions of the refining process by at least 12%, depending on the H2 supply source.</p>
<p><strong>Investments needed by 2050</strong></p>
<p>The Clean H2 strategy realizes the <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/us-announces-750-clean-hydrogen-technologies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">steps</a> taken by the government in this direction and highlights the Hydrogen Energy Earthshot program launched by the DOE in 2021. The program would reduce the cost of clean hydrogen by 80% to $1/ gram in a decade.</p>
<p>With rising distributed end-uses like road transportation, the adoption of clean hydrogen and local hubs and regional networks will be linked into a national network. This would require rapid scale-up of midstream infrastructure, with investments growing from $2 billion to $3 billion annually from 2023 to 2030, increasing to $15 billion to $20 billion annually from 2030 to 2050.</p>
<p>Below is a table describing modeled cost at scale for the U.S. to meet its goals under the Hydrogen Earthshot initiative between 2022-2036:</p>
<p><a href="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Green-hydrogen-US.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-55032 " src="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Green-hydrogen-US.jpg" alt="Green hydrogen US" width="689" height="748" srcset="https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Green-hydrogen-US.jpg 1379w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Green-hydrogen-US-276x300.jpg 276w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Green-hydrogen-US-768x834.jpg 768w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Green-hydrogen-US-650x706.jpg 650w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Green-hydrogen-US-624x677.jpg 624w, https://mercomindia.s3.ap-south-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Green-hydrogen-US-600x651.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 689px) 100vw, 689px" /></a></p>
<p>Apart from the Hydrogen Earthshot, President Biden’s Bipartisan Law announced an investment of $1 billion for a Clean Hydrogen Electrolysis program. The administration aims to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of electrolysis technologies through the program by supporting research and development, to enable $2/kg of clean H2 from electrolysis by 2026.</p>
<p>The DOE also <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/us-announces-7-billion-funding-regional-hydrogen-hubs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> a $7 billion funding opportunity to create regional hydrogen hubs across the U.S. to help communities benefit from clean energy investments while creating direct and indirect jobs.</p>
<p>An additional investment of $500 million is directed toward Clean Hydrogen Manufacturing and Recycling research, development, demonstration, and deployment. The program will support clean H2 equipment manufacturing for key components in the U.S. and domestic supply chains.</p>
<p>The roadmap predicts that if all announced projects for H2 production clear the final investment stage, it will create a clean H2 supply of 12 MMT annually, breaching the current goals of DOE.</p>
<p>Based on various studies, the roadmap estimates that about 4-8 MMT of H2 would be needed annually by 2050 to supply energy storage and power generation for a 100% clean grid.</p>


Demand for Clean Hydrogen in US to Grow to 50 MMT by 2050


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					</table><p>The U.S. Department of Energy (<a href="https://www.energy.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">DOE</a>) has announced a grant of $750 million for research, development, and demonstration efforts to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen significantly.</p>
<p>The funding, which is the first phase of the Biden Administration&#8217;s $1.5 billion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will aim to speed up the widespread use of clean hydrogen.</p>
<p>The initiative aims to achieve the commercial-scale deployment of hydrogen during this decade, which is expected to help aid the country’s goal of achieving a 100% clean electrical grid by 2035 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.</p>
<p>U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm stated that producing clean hydrogen from readily available renewable energy sources can provide the country with a potent fuel for various purposes, such as low-emission applications in the manufacturing and construction industries, energy storage, and transportation.</p>
<p>“DOE is accelerating efforts to make this exciting and versatile fuel market-ready within a decade—supercharging America’s drive towards an affordable and secure, clean energy economy,” Granholm added.</p>
<p>The initial phase of implementing two sections of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has been initiated through this funding.</p>
<p>These provisions allocate $1 billion for research, development, demonstration, and deployment activities to reduce the expense of producing clean hydrogen via electrolysis.</p>
<p>Another $500 million is earmarked for research, development, and demonstration of better processes and technologies for producing and recycling clean hydrogen systems and materials.</p>
<p>Leveraging tax incentives, research, development, and demonstration in the DOE Hydrogen Program and regional clean hydrogen hubs (H2Hubs), the DOE is looking to accomplish its ambitious Hydrogen Shot objective of producing clean hydrogen at $1 per kilogram within ten years.</p>
<p>The DOE intends to offer financial assistance awards in the form of cooperative agreements with a performance period of roughly two to five years.</p>
<p>Applicants will be required to form teams encompassing various stakeholders from different backgrounds, such as academia, industry, and national laboratories, possessing expertise in several technical disciplines.</p>
<p>These teams should also include diverse entities such as minority-serving institutions, labor unions, tribal nations, community colleges, and other organizations associated with Opportunity Zones.</p>
<p>The application process will consist of two stages, a concept paper phase, and a full application phase.</p>
<p>The deadline for concept papers will be April 19, and complete applications must be submitted by July 19, 2023.</p>
<p>In September last year, the DOE <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/us-announces-7-billion-funding-regional-hydrogen-hubs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> a $7 billion funding opportunity to create regional clean hydrogen hubs (H2Hubs) across America.</p>
<p>In January 2023, Pacific Gas &amp; Electric Company (PG&amp;E) and Energy Vault <a href="https://www.mercomindia.com/us-city-to-replace-diesel-green-hydrogen-plus-battery-system" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> a 10.5-year agreement to deploy and operate a utility-scale battery plus green hydrogen long-duration energy storage system with a minimum of 293 MWh of dispatchable carbon-free energy. This would replace the conventional, mobile diesel generators used to power PG&amp;E’s microgrid in Calistoga, a city in Northern California, during border grid outages.</p>


US Announces $750 Million to Advance Clean Hydrogen Technologies

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