The Center on Global Energy Policy’s Women in Energy initiative co-hosted an event entitled “Women in Hydrogen: Scaling Up Clean Energy” on September 18, 2023. The event featured a women-led discussion and focused on US national strategy and what is needed to ensure that the technology’s potential is fully realized and that meaningful climate, economic, and community benefits are delivered.
Following are some takeaways from the event:
- Panelists discussed how hydrogen can play an important role in decarbonization. Hydrogen can become carbon-neutral and be used as fuel or for energy storage. However, building green hydrogen projects and commercializing hydrogen should be a top priority. At present, there is a lot of momentum for hydrogen, but less concrete action.
- Attendees lauded recent US government actions like the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill as helping to expedite hydrogen development.
- There was a discussion of how policy ambiguity and the implementation of tax credits, such as 45V, can present a challenge for hydrogen. 45V is particularly notable because the tax credit is contingent on the energy produced being renewable, and there are debates over which reporting mechanism should be used for the tax credit.
- One of the long-term goals of developing hydrogen is to be able to deliver it at a viable price point. Currently, hydrogen is expensive, and increasing the supply of hydrogen while connecting subsidized hydrogen with areas of high demand will help to reduce costs.