A coalition of companies, including major utilities such as Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Southern Company, and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), has applied for federal funding to build a green hydrogen network spanning six southeastern states in the USA.
The Southeast Hydrogen Hub coalition has completed its full application to the US Department of Energy (DOE) for funding to build a green hydrogen network. The DOE’s $8 billion program aims to support the development of at least four hydrogen hubs that can be developed into a national clean hydrogen network to facilitate a clean hydrogen economy by 2026.
The initiative has gained support from bipartisan lawmakers across the region, and a group of senators from Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee has expressed their support for the project. The coalition believes that a hydrogen hub in the Southeastern USA could assist in decarbonization efforts and bring robust economic development benefits and jobs to the region.
Green Energy Centre with Green Hydrogen Hub and Small Modular Reactors Planned for Virginia
In a separate announcement, Virginia-based Green Energy Partners LLC plans to create the USA’s first fully integrated green energy center at a 641-acre site in Surry County, Virginia. The Surry Green Energy Center (SGEC) will include the building of 1-gigawatt of data centers and a Green Hydrogen Hub, with the eventual deployment of four to six 250 MWe small modular reactors (SMRs). The SGEC may also incorporate energy storage capabilities to balance supply and demand.
The SGEC vision is to begin constructing the data centers now, with electricity provided by the grid. In the future, the data centers would interconnect to carbon-free sustainable power from the co-located on-site SMRs. With data centers in Loudoun County, Virginia, currently using about 20% of Virginia’s power capacity while handling upwards of 70% of the world’s data traffic, the SGEC will provide much-needed support to America and the world’s internet traffic with positive national security implications.
Importance of Clean Hydrogen Hubs in Achieving Clean Energy Goals
The Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program, also known as H2Hubs, includes up to $7 billion to establish six to ten regional clean hydrogen hubs across America. As part of a larger $8 billion hydrogen hub program funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the H2Hubs will be a central driver in helping communities across the country benefit from clean energy investments, good-paying jobs, and improved energy security.
Clean hydrogen hubs will create networks of hydrogen producers, consumers, and local connective infrastructure to accelerate the use of hydrogen as a clean energy carrier that can deliver or store tremendous amounts of energy. The production, processing, delivery, storage, and end-use of clean hydrogen, including innovative uses in the industrial sector, are crucial to DOE’s strategy for achieving President Biden’s goal of a 100 percent clean electrical grid by 2035 and net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Hydrogen energy has the power to slash emissions from multiple carbon-intensive sectors and open a world of economic opportunity to clean energy businesses and workers across the country. Getting hydrogen right would mean unlocking a new source of clean, dispatchable power, and a new method of energy storage. It would mean another pathway for decarbonizing heavy industry and transportation.