The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a grant of $750 million for research, development, and demonstration efforts to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen significantly.

The funding, which is the first phase of the Biden Administration’s $1.5 billion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will aim to speed up the widespread use of clean hydrogen.

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.

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.

“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.

The initial phase of implementing two sections of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has been initiated through this funding.

These provisions allocate $1 billion for research, development, demonstration, and deployment activities to reduce the expense of producing clean hydrogen via electrolysis.

Another $500 million is earmarked for research, development, and demonstration of better processes and technologies for producing and recycling clean hydrogen systems and materials.

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.

The DOE intends to offer financial assistance awards in the form of cooperative agreements with a performance period of roughly two to five years.

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.

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.

The application process will consist of two stages, a concept paper phase, and a full application phase.

The deadline for concept papers will be April 19, and complete applications must be submitted by July 19, 2023.

In September last year, the DOE announced a $7 billion funding opportunity to create regional clean hydrogen hubs (H2Hubs) across America.

In January 2023, Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) and Energy Vault signed 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&E’s microgrid in Calistoga, a city in Northern California, during border grid outages.