Blog | Positioning Los Angeles as North America’s First Hydrogen Hub
Positioning Los Angeles as North America’s First Hydrogen Hub
By Janice Lin, Founder and President of the Green Hydrogen Coalition
HyBuild Los Angeles (“HyBuild™ LA”) is moving to Phase 2! The first regional initiative in the Green Hydrogen Coalition’s HyBuild™ North America platform, HyBuild™ LA is designed to create a system plan and practical roadmap for achieving delivery of scaled green hydrogen (GH2) supply to multi-sectoral off takers at less than $2.00/kilogram (kg). HyBuild™ LA is also intended to serve as a model for broad stakeholder engagement to accelerate GH2 ecosystem, or “hub” formation, including prioritization of the “no regrets infrastructure” needed throughout the ecosystem, including upstream production, midstream transport and storage, as well as downstream application-specific infrastructure.
HyBuild™ LA Phase 1: Identifying Demand for Green Hydrogen
Our efforts are working. In Phase 1 of HyBuild™ LA, we identified and qualified 1-3 million metric tons of potential aggregated annual demand for GH2 in the LA basin, targeting applications in heavy duty transport, industrial, and power applications. The GHC team has also modeled electrolyzer production costs utilizing abundant wind and solar resources in Southern California and the Southwest U.S., and alternative transport and storage scenarios to meet the $2.00/kg GH2 price target. To achieve this delivered price target, Phase 1 analysis clearly indicated that 100% GH2 pipeline transport connected to mass-scale underground geologic storage (salt domes) of GH2 was essential. A regional system plan was developed based on the location of commercially proven geologic storage resources and potential key routes for needed 100% GH2 gas pipeline infrastructure to transport GH2 to off takers in the LA Basin.
HyBuild™ LA Phase 2: An Emphasis on Equity, Pollution Reduction, Job Creation and Economic Development
The GHC now is embarking on a new scope of work for HyBuild™ LA, leveraging the considerable progress the team has made to-date. We are expanding our vision to include additional multi-sector applications, including the use of GH2 for shipping and aviation. Importantly, we are building on our previous work to co-create the path forward on a foundation of environmental justice. Key focus areas for Phase 2 include strengthened engagement with local stakeholder groups and underserved communities to identify and align on the powerful community value proposition GH2 provides, with an emphasis on equity, pollution reduction, and job creation and economic development.
Additionally, the team will expand its research to identify and update total GH2 offtake and infrastructure needs, including offtake for ocean shipping, aviation, and heavy-duty trucking. This workstream will also explore water availability, use, and consumption needs for the HyBuild™ LA hub. Policy and regulatory recommendations will follow as the HyBuild™ LA Phase 2 scope of work is completed later this year.
Phase 2 engagements will take a variety of forms, including bimonthly plenary meetings complemented by monthly working group and mini-group meetings to advance accelerated hub development progress. Participants in these meetings include GHC supporters, project staff, and invited guests from across the GH2 ecosystem, including policymakers and elected officials alongside environmental, environmental justice, labor, and community groups.
The Future of Green Hydrogen
Momentum behind GH2 is building, with $9.5 billion in federal incentives under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill now being deployed and with clean hydrogen deployment advancing rapidly in Europe through the launch of the HyDeal España hub, the world’s largest.
Much work remains, but our belief in the promise of GH2 as a true game changer to accelerate multi-sectoral decarbonization and fight climate change is as strong as ever. The next phase of our work in the Los Angeles region will be our most impactful yet. The GHC is committed to advancing GH2 adoption at scale to speed the transition to a carbon-free energy system, and we are gratified by the support we have received from our donors and individual contributors from across the country and globally. Our strength resides in our unifying vision: Achieving an equitable and just clean energy transition with GH2.