The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has officially launched the Million Mile Fuel Cell Truck (M2FCT) and the H2NEW consortia to advance fuel cell truck and hydrogen production R&D.
The announcement builds upon DOE’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Office’s (EERE’s) intention to invest up to $100 million over five years, subject to appropriations, to reduce the cost of fuel cells for trucks and of electrolyzers for hydrogen production.
“I am excited by the hydrogen and fuel cell progress we have seen to date. We need to continue to drive costs down if we want to accelerate large-scale deployments across the country,” says Daniel R. Simmons, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at DOE. “Through these new consortia, the National Labs, industry and academia will work together to significantly cut the cost and improve the performance of electrolyzers and heavy-duty fuel cells.”
Under each consortia, a DOE National Laboratory will lead R&D and collaborate with the hydrogen and fuel cell community to identify innovative ways to make hydrogen and fuel cell technologies more affordable and competitive in today’s market. Each consortium will receive up to $10 million per year over five years to advance progress in specific hydrogen production and fuel cell R&D areas:
- M2FCT will have Los Alamos and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories as co-leads. It will focus on fuel cell durability, performance and cost to better position fuel cell trucks as a viable option in the long-haul trucking market
- H2NEW will have the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory as co-leads. It will focus on making large-scale electrolyzers, which produce hydrogen from electricity and water more durable, efficient and affordable
M2FCT and H2NEW will leverage equipment at National Labs and support DOE EERE’s H2@Scale vision for large-scale, affordable hydrogen production, storage, distribution and utilization. EERE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office plans to release future funding opportunity announcements designed to incentivize private industry to collaborate with these new consortia.
Photo: An electrolyzer in the Energy Systems Integration Lab at NREL’s Energy Systems Integration Facility
