Hydrogen has emerged as an energy carrier, in part, because of our need for a solution to the intermittency of renewables. In the best of circumstances, it can be made from electrolysis of water, powered either by solar or wind. Theoretically, it can therefore store surplus renewable power when the grid is unable to absorb it, and most critically, it can help decarbonize hard-to-electrify sectors such as long-distance transport and heavy industry.
As earthquakes and climate change turn natural gas from boon to bane, there is new hope for the use of hydrogen if it can be made “clean.” And, that isn’t always the case.
The climate impact depends entirely on how it is made – if from natural gas, not so clean (called “grey”), if from natural gas with carbon capture and storage, better (called “blue”), and if from the electrolysis of water powered by renewables, very fine indeed (called “green”).
Nearly all the commercial hydrogen used in America today (2024) is created via the process called steam methane reformation, in which the methane in natural gas is subjected to high-temperature steam. The conversion creates free hydrogen but also the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide as a byproduct. That’s why scientists are racing to find ways to bring down the cost of green hydrogen solutions such as electrolyzers. They apply current to water to separate it into its component elements of hydrogen and oxygen, but they remain more expensive than current technology.
Some have posited that hydrogen has a future fueling private cars, but most believe that the future of automobiles is electric, although many suggest that long haul freight will be electric plus hydrogen. Philipp Niessen, director for industry and innovation at the European Climate Foundation, predicts its most important potential lies “in sectors such as heavy industry where there is no decarbonization alternative.”
The Biden-Harris administration’s Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law both included significant investments and incentives for developing clean hydrogen production in the U.S. - with the IRA including the largest hydrogen subsidies in the world. In June 2023, the DOE released the National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap, a plan to dramatically increase clean hydrogen production in order to meet decarbonization goals. Watch a video on the document here. Biden also created the Hydrogen Interagency Task Force, made of various member agencies collaborating to work towards clean hydrogen.
President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act altered IRA hydrogen tax credits, setting an accelerated deadline to qualify that the majority of companies will not meet. The IRA established tax credits for both “green” and “blue” hydrogen projects. In order to qualify for these Biden-era tax credits, construction must be underway by 2027.
Cost increases and changes to energy policy are making clean hydrogen projects less viable, with two Australian companies recently canceling their low-emission hydrogen projects in the U.S. The lack of incentives could “hobble the nascent U.S. green hydrogen industry” as “there is little motivation for offtakers to choose green or blue hydrogen over established grey hydrogen sources.”
The Biden-era H2Hubs program - a plan for seven new regional hydrogen hubs for a connective infrastructure of clean hydrogen across America - is also at risk. DOE canceled multiple public meetings on the program that were scheduled to occur in February 2025, and President Trump has ordered a review of the program’s funding..
However, the Trump Administration’s approach to hydrogen has been less clear-cut than its aggressive slashing of other renewables. Initially, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would have changed the deadline for IRA hydrogen tax credits to January 1, 2026; this was changed to January 1, 2027 just before it was passed. As Hayley Smith of the Los Angeles Times suggests, the Trump administration’s approach to hydrogen may be informed by hydrogen’s link to fossil fuels.
Much of the summarized information above (pre-2021) came from an utterly brilliant, articulate, and comprehensive article written by Sonja van Renssen, on August 27, 2020, in Nature Climate Change. The entire article is here.
CREDIT: hydrogen.energy.gov
