DOE Releases FOA For Its H2@Scale Initiative

By Lynn L. Bergeson

Also on January 23, 2020, DOE announced that up to $64 million will be available in funding to advance innovations that will build new markets for the H2@Scale initiative. H2@Scale is an initiative focused on exploring the potential for wide-scale hydrogen production and utilization in the United States to enable resilience and sustainability of the power generation and transmission sectors. The initiative’s goal is to align diverse multibillion-dollar domestic industries with domestic competitiveness and job creation. The funding will support transformational R&D and innovative hydrogen concepts that will encourage market expansion and increase the scale of hydrogen production, storage, transport, and use. According to DOE, the hydrogen and fuel cells industry represents the potential to enable resiliency, energy security, emission reductions, and economic growth across sectors in the United States. Topic areas for this FOA include:

• Up to $15 million for advanced carbon fiber for compressed gas storage tanks to reduce cost by developing high-strength carbon fiber and scaling up to industry-relevant scales;

• Up to $2 million for training and workforce development creating coordinated regional efforts to support the growing hydrogen and fuel cell industry;

• Up to $10 million for fuel cell R&D and domestic manufacturing for medium- and heavy-duty transportation;

• Up to $15 million for electrolyzer manufacturing R&D;

• Up to $8 million for H2@Scale new markets R&D; and

• Up to $14 million for H2@Scale new markets demonstrations in maritime and data centers.

Concept papers must be submitted on or prior to February 25, 2020, and full applications are due on April 20, 2020. Further information is available here.