DOE awarding ~$4.75M to San Francisco and Strategic Analysis for hydrogen fuel cell vehicle and infrastructure projects
20 May 2016
The US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has selected the city of San Francisco for funding as the first Climate Action Champion to pursue hydrogen and fuel cell technologies for local transportation. (Earlier post.) In addition, new analysis projects by Strategic Analysis, Inc. focused on hydrogen fuel cell vehicle and infrastructure technologies will receive funding.
The nearly $4.75 million in funding for both efforts will go towards the development of education and outreach programs to increase the deployment of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) and hydrogen infrastructure, as well as provide detailed cost analyses for hydrogen fuel cell systems, hydrogen storage, and hydrogen production and delivery technologies.
The selections were announced at a meeting of the Steering Committee of the International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy—a government partnership of 17 countries and the European Commission coordinating activities in hydrogen and fuel cells—in Berkeley, California by Deputy Assistant Secretary Reuben Sarkar.
In the DOE-supported project, San Francisco aims to enroll at least three local businesses into an FCEV group purchase program, exploring opportunities for discount pricing and offering information about local, state and federal incentives. By pooling the purchasing power of groups, the project will reduce cost and complexity for consumers.
With the new funding, the San Francisco Department of the Environment will also conduct comprehensive training and educational activities for hydrogen and fuel cell stakeholders throughout the Bay Area.
While 14 new hydrogen-fueling stations are planned for deployment in the Bay Area within the next two years, high upfront costs and lack of consumer education can be additional barriers to adoption. As San Francisco works to triple California’s zero emissions vehicles (ZEV) adoption goal and have 15% ZEV (including a high percentage of FCEVs) in San Francisco by 2025, local governments engaged in the rollout of new stations are addressing a range of permitting, code and communication barriers.
A key goal of this project is to harmonize local regulations and building codes to ease the siting and construction of hydrogen fueling stations while reducing the cost and complexity of FCEVs for the community through regional education and outreach.
In addition, Strategic Analysis, Inc. based in Arlington, Virginia, has been selected to analyze the cost competitiveness for a range of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, including those used in hydrogen infrastructure relevant to San Francisco and other projects.
These cost analyses and evaluations are critical components to move the industry of hydrogen and fuel cell technology development towards widespread commercial deployment.
Project partners include the San Francisco Clean Cities Coalition, the California Fuel Cell Partnership, the Business Council on Climate Change, and the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at UC Berkeley.
In December of 2014, the White House launched the Climate Action Champions Initiative, and announced 16 communities from around the country, including the city of San Francisco, as the first class of Climate Action Champions. These communities were recognized for their strong commitment to lowering greenhouse gas emissions and the fight against climate change.
A much wider partnership including FCEVs manufacturers, H2 suppliers, H2 station manufacturers etc could add at least 2 more zeros?
Posted by: HarveyD | 20 May 2016 at 12:34 PM
Not much money but I would rather see research money spent on new nuclear reactors. If we ever get to the point that there is excess clean electric power then and only then should we consider hydrogen. Most hydrogen comes from reforming natural gas and you would be better off just burning the natural gas in internal combustion engines. I know, I am going to here about using excess renewable energy for generating hydrogen but excess renewable energy does not exist and I doubt that it ever will in the US. It may exist in Iceland or Northern Quebec but even there it is better used to refine aluminum, etc.
Posted by: sd | 20 May 2016 at 03:16 PM
@sd,
Excess renewable energy (RE) exists all around you. Every time you look outside the window and see the wind is blowing and the sun is shining, and there are no wind turbine nor solar PV to catch those RE, then these excess renewable energy are going to waste.
So, to keep those RE from going to waste, we will simply need to build more and more solar PV panels and more wind turbines. As long as any grid-EXCESS RE can be used to make H2 to bring back predictable revenue for the investors, the growth of solar and wind energy will continue.
Posted by: Roger Pham | 20 May 2016 at 05:02 PM
@Roger Pham
I do not know what alternative universe/fantasy world you live in. Last year, we got 4.1% of our (United States) electrical energy from wind power and about 0.6% from solar power. Counting all sources, including biomass which is questionable whether it should be considered renewable, we got a little less than 13.5% of our from "renewable" sources. The biggest part of this was hydro-electric. What renewable power that we do generate is better spent replacing power that would otherwise be produced using coal and then natural gas. It is interesting to note that in 1950 we produced 30% of our power from "renewable" sources which was almost all hydro-electric. Hydro could not grow with the demand as most of the major sources had already been used. Yes, wind power and solar will continue to grow but we have already placed wind turbines in most of the best locations. For reference you can see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_the_United_States
Also, I am glad that when I look out my window and see the leaves blowing in the wind that I do not see any wind turbines. They are not pleasant neighbors. I would far rather live near a nuclear power plant.
Posted by: sd | 21 May 2016 at 02:45 PM
There are 101 ways, for USA to return to 30+% REs, mainly by reducing current e-energy consumption with/by:
1. reviewing the building codes to drastically reduce the need for heating/cooling.
2. give large credits for mandated upgrades to existing homes and buildings over the next 5 to 10 years.
3. Ban the use of older SEER 10 to 13 HVAC and mandate the use of SEER 25+ Heat Pumps.
4. Mandate the progressive use (over 5 years or so) of 150+ L/Watt LEDS for all streets, highways, parkings and private/public internal & external lighting.
5. Mandate the use of recent higher performance PVs for private homes, public buildings and open air parkings.
6. For the above to take place, a break may be required between Washington DC and the Coal/Oil/NG industries. Some of it could happen by early 2017, if voters really want it enough.
Posted by: HarveyD | 24 May 2016 at 08:20 AM