The Western Interstate Hydrogen Hub LLC (WIH2), a partnership between Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, submitted an application last week for part of a $1.25 billion grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to advance the hydrogen economy.
The proposal identifies eight projects across the four states, with at least one project in each state, according to a release from a DOE. The partnership between the four states came in response to the DOE’s Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs (H2Hubs) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to establish infrastructure-based hydrogen economies across America.
Governors from the four states signed a Memorandum of Understanding in February 2022 to create the Western Inter-State Hydrogen Hub (WISHH) coalition to coordinate and develop a regional clean hydrogen hub. Covering an estimated 408,000 square miles, the four western states produce about one-sixth of the nation’s energy.
“Through bipartisan collaboration with states and project partners, we are advancing a vital economic development initiative that will power the nation and create thousands of jobs — all while reducing emissions,” Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham said in the press release. “I look forward to the Department of Energy approving our plans for the premier hydrogen hub in the nation.”
Atkins, a leading design and engineering firm and government contractor, identified eight qualified project partners to develop and submit a proposal to the DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED). Universities, national laboratories, private-sector developers, and technology providers lent their expertise to the process. Project developers have vowed to exceed the DOE’s requested minimum 50% grant match, according to the release.
Per release, the projects identified in the application are: AVANGRID, which will leverage its experience in renewables to produce hydrogen in New Mexico (Navajo Nation in San Juan County and in Torrance County); AVF Energy, which will produce renewable natural gas/clean hydrogen from biomass harvested as part of fire mitigation and environmental restoration in Utah (Duchesne, Iron and Sevier counties); Dominion Energy Utah’s ThermH2 project, which blends hydrogen into a high-pressure natural gas system in Utah (Juab and Utah counties); Libertad Power which will produce clean hydrogen in New Mexico to serve off-takers across the Southwest in heavy haul transportation and power generation/storage (San Juan and Lea counties); Navajo Agricultural Product Industries (NAPI), a 275,000-acre Navajo Nation-owned commercial farm which is seeking to become energy self-sufficient and raise produce in greenhouses for the benefit of Tribal members in the Navajo Nation and San Juan County, New Mexico; Tallgrass Energy, which will produce clean hydrogen serving the power, transportation, and other industrial markets through its eH2Power project in New Mexico and Front Range Hydrogen project in Colorado and Wyoming; and Xcel Energy Colorado which will produce hydrogen on the eastern plains of Colorado using wind and solar and will support hydrogen use in the electric sector and hard to decarbonize segments of the economy.
“We’re very excited to see three hydrogen projects interested in locating in San Juan County, New Mexico,” San Juan County Commission Chair Steve Lanier said per release. “The opportunity to land high-wage jobs and replace some of the property tax base lost with the closure of the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station is exactly the kind of energy transformation and economic development we need.”
The DOE is expected to invite applicants to pre-selection interviews this summer and announce awards later in the year.
More information about WISHH can be found here.
