Adding a push for more hydrogen fuel cell vehicle technology to its existing battery-electric vehicle initiatives, the U.S. Energy Department is providing funds to multiple companies involved with hydrogen fuel cell development, including GM, at the behest of the Biden administration.
GM and other automotive hydrogen fuel cell innovators will share a total of $750 million earmarked to support their efforts, provided under the aegis of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and consisting of grants rather than loans.
GM is not the biggest recipient of the hydrogen-based grant money, with the largest series of grants totaling $88.9 million given to Plug Power. Plug Power is a U.S. company developing rapid-recharge hydrogen fuel cells for vehicle applications, including hydrogen-powered forklifts. However, The General is among the 52 recipients of the federal grant money, and will get $30 million according to the funding selections list.
The hydrogen-based project for which GM will receive the U.S. Energy Department funding is “high-speed fuel cell stack manufacturing.” The government says it expects the automaker to use the grants to “expand domestic fuel cell manufacturing capacity by 20,000 stacks per year.” The General is also said to be developing more durable, high-performance hydrogen fuel cells suitable for “heavy-duty applications.”
GM has already said it is developing hydrogen power for its medium-duty trucks and recently launched a hydrogen truck and worksite program.
General Motors is expected to create approximately 200 new jobs with its hydrogen project. Overall, the U.S. Energy Department believes the 52 projects to which it is giving grants will create roughly 1,500 new jobs. Beyond workforce benefits, the projects will “enable U.S. manufacturing capacity to produce 14 gigawatts of fuel cells per year, enough to power 15 percent of medium- and heavy-duty trucks sold each year,” according to the department’s projections.
GM is also a partner of four other funded projects. One is led by Nel Hydrogen US, which has been granted $50 million to develop a fully automated proton exchange membrane electrolyzer stack manufacturing process in Plymouth, MI. The second one is a consortium led by the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in New York, NY, which is receiving $50 million to develop and demonstrate recycling technology approaches to address end-of-life and critical supply chain challenges for proton exchange membrane fuel cells and electrolyzers. The third project is led by Saueressig North America Inc., which is getting a $9.9 million grant to tackle key challenges related to scaling the production of carbon-based bipolar plates for fuel cells, based in Burlington, NC. The fourth one is led by Pajarito Powder LLC in Albuquerque, NM, which is getting $10 million to build on established processes to increase manufacturing capacity to achieve DOC targets, contributing to strengthening the domestic catalyst-supplier base.
The grants are just one element of a multi-pronged hydrogen strategy designed to strongly expand use of clean hydrogen for commercial vehicles as well as other industrial uses. Other parts of the strategy intended to help foster development are tax incentives, the $7 billion Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs initiative, and research carried out by the Hydrogen Program of the Department of Energy itself.
Jennifer M. Granholm, U.S. Secretary of Energy, claimed that the grants and other initiatives are “propelling an American-led clean hydrogen economy that is delivering good-paying, high-quality jobs and accelerating a manufacturing renaissance” across the nation.
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Comments
You can find “worthy causes” when we’re out of debt. You can’t when we’re adding another 10% to 30trillion every single year.
Taking a page out of the Chinese government with subsidies for these things?
We currently subsidize housing, agriculture, dairy, transportation, beef production, the petroleum industry and a myriad of other industries. They can give the money back simply because hydrogen is a dead end as an energy source for POVs.
I don’t understand why anyone is pursuing hydrogen as a light vehicle fuel. It so inefficient and expensive to produce, store and transport it’s just ridiculous. SMH
Hydrogen is just grasping at the oil and gas straw. Taxation on oil being lost drives this bad use of my tax money. Platinum is rare and extremely expensive and fuel cells are not reliable.
Just wondering, is GM going to give up their NA6.2 V8?
Not sure we’ll find out in a thread about hydrogen……