This week's awards: Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs (H2Hubs) Program's California Hydrogen Hub (ARCHES), Long-Duration Energy Storage Demonstrations (LDES) Program's Columbia Energy Storage Project
Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations
July 17, 2024
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On Wednesdays, OCED will announce the latest projects that have successfully completed award negotiations. OCED will only issue an Award Wednesday notification on weeks when an award has been finalized.
AWARD ANNOUNCEMENTS
Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs
California Hydrogen Hub (ARCHES)
OCED awarded the California Hydrogen Hub—led by the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems (ARCHES)—with $30 million for the first tranche of funding out of the total project federal cost share of up to $1.2 billion to begin Phase 1 of the project plan. OCED is working with ARCHES to build the California Hydrogen Hub, a network of clean hydrogen production sites that incorporate multiple facilities at California ports, with the ultimate goal of decarbonizing public transportation, heavy duty trucking, and port operations by 2 million metric tons per year—roughly the equivalent to annual emissions of 445,000 gasoline-powered cars. The expansion of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in heavy-duty transportation aims to not only drive improvements in air quality along high pollution interstate transportation corridors but also to facilitate greater connectivity and expansion of a clean West Coast freight network that links to the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub. During Phase 1, which is expected to last up to 18 months, ARCHES will conduct planning, analysis, and design activities in addition to ongoing stakeholder and community engagement.
View the project fact sheet and Community Benefits Commitments summary here. Learn more about engagement opportunities here.
Long-Duration Energy Storage (LDES) Demonstrations Program
Columbia Energy Storage Project
OCED awarded the LDES Columbia Energy Storage Project, led by Alliant Energy, with more than $7 million for the first tranche of funding out of the total project federal cost share of up to $30.7 million to begin Phase 1 of its project plan. Alliant Energy plans to construct a grid-tied compressed carbon dioxide (CO2) LDES system at the Columbia Energy Center, a soon-to-be retired coal-fired power plant in Pacific, WI. The 180 MWh energy storage system, designed by technology vendor Energy Dome, would take excess energy from the grid and store it by converting CO2 gas into a compressed liquid form. When energy is needed, the system would convert the liquid CO2 back to a gas, powering a turbine to create electricity. During Phase 1, Alliant Energy and the project team will conduct foundational activities such as formalizing the project plan, signing partnership agreements, conducting interconnection studies, defining the permit plan, performing environmental planning, and conducting engineering and design work.
View the project fact sheet and Community Benefits Commitments summary here. Learn more about engagement opportunities here.