The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced increased collaboration with stakeholders to reduce regulatory barriers on the development of hydrogen infrastructure and has issued a new Request for Information (RFI) (DE-FOA-0001948) to foster this united effort with industry.

Previous feedback collected during reviews identified the need for updated codes and standards as one of the top six barriers to hydrogen infrastructure. The goal of this RFI is to identify these barriers and potential courses‐of‐action to address them to reduce deployment time and cost in implementing hydrogen technologies and to support the rollout of large‐scale applications.

The goals of this RFI, in the context of developing and using hydrogen as an energy carrier across sectors and for diverse applications, are to:

• Understand the effects of regulations imposed on industry, particularly the parts of industry responsible for hydrogen infrastructure;

• Identify Federal regulations, codes, and state/local laws and identify the related compliance costs; and

• Recommend actions to reduce the burdens of regulatory requirements.

DOE seeks feedback on:

1. Infrastructure for Near-Term Transportation Applications. As current and near‐term technologies are deployed (i.e., light duty vehicles, medium duty vehicles, heavy duty vehicles) and as hydrogen technologies are more widely adopted, existing issues within the codes and standards and permitting community begin to have a greater impact. DOE is interested in identifying barriers to implementation of hydrogen technologies and potential solutions to those barriers consistent with safe practices.

2. Large-scale Applications. To realize widespread, nationwide hydrogen use, new challenges in terms of meeting regulatory and permit requirements are expected to lead to needed revisions in terms of codes and standards and safety. One such example is in the area of large‐scale hydrogen storage—i.e. greater than 1,000 kilograms stored or used per day. These large‐scale needs are frequently beyond the scope of existing codes and would likely necessitate new courses‐of‐action prior to their deployment. DOE requests input on barriers relating to the implementation of the applications such as heavy‐duty vehicles, marine or rail power, and information processing centers, including but not limited to the needs relating to large‐scale storage.

3. Large-scale Hydrogen Delivery and Storage. Large‐scale hydrogen usage inherently leads to unique needs in terms of codes and standards, permitting, and safety. One such example is the area of large‐scale hydrogen storage and delivery: these needs are frequently beyond the scope of existing codes and would likely necessitate R&D prior to their deployment. DOE requests input on barriers relating to the implementation of the large‐scale hydrogen applications, including but not limited to the needs relating to bulk storage and delivery.

4. Grid Support (H2@Scale). Hydrogen can be produced via water electrolysis or other hydrogen production methods for electric power grid support providing storage and/or ancillary services to grid operators (e.g., by supplying regulation—frequency control—and ramping services). By converting surplus power generation into hydrogen for later reconversion to electric power, this type of grid support is particularly useful for variable power generation characteristics associated with renewables such as wind and solar power.

5. On topics related to the issues within this RFI that could be considered for future prizes.

Based on the input received through this request for information, DOE will look to provide feedback to relevant agencies with regulatory authority. The comment period for the RFI will close at 5:00pm (ET) on 10 August 2018.