Two Groups Back PNW Renewable Hydrogen Plan

The Center for Sustainable Infrastructure (CSI) and the Renewable Hydrogen Alliance recently released the Pacific Northwest Renewable Hydrogen Action Plan, which offers a strategic agenda for policy, projects and research to scale up renewable hydrogen (RH2) production and use in the region. Renewable hydrogen production uses renewable electricity for vehicles, vessels, industry and homes.

RH2 stores that electricity as a fuel that can be used in various applications and hard-to-decarbonize sectors. Moreover, RH2 production can generate jobs and economic value for the region, say proponents.

“Bonneville Environmental Foundation has identified renewable hydrogen as a critical fuel for the electricity, transportation and industrial sectors,” said Evan Ramsey, who is with one of the action plan’s key sponsors, the Bonneville Environmental Foundation (BEF). “This molecule, derived from renewable electricity, is truly the only scalable zero-carbon fuel that can help advance our electrification and decarbonization goals.”

The Pacific Northwest Renewable Hydrogen Action Plan synthesizes insights from experts and distills a set of actions that will put the Northwest on a shared path forward to build a significant RH2 sector.

The Action Plan makes two calls to action, backed by input from nearly 50 thought leaders and industry experts: Lead with Projects that produce RH2 and deliver it to customers, and Create a 10-Year RH2 Roadmap that lays out RH2’s role in the optimized energy portfolio of the future, and the steps to get there. 

“The purpose of the Action Plan is to accelerate the deployment of RH2 in the Pacific Northwest, and realize the climate, economic, environmental and social benefits that RH2 offers the region and the planet,” said Rhys Roth, CSI’s founder and the plan’s primary author.