Puget Sound Energy has teamed up with clean-energy supplier Modern Hydrogen to develop a new low-emissions approach to creating hydrogen for use in the commercial and industrial sectors, PSE said in a press release.
“PSE is undergoing the most significant transformation in our history as we strive to meet Washington state’s clean-energy laws—some of the most ambitious in the nation,” said Josh Jacobs, PSE vice president of energy strategy and planning. “Our partnership with Modern Hydrogen is a significant step towards achieving this vision, as their technology has the potential to help our largest gas customers accelerate their decarbonization programs and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.”
Modern Hydrogen and a growing number of climate-tech startups are exploring a new method of creating hydrogen, called clean hydrogen, that diverts from the more common green hydrogen—which employs electrolysis using clean electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Green hydrogen has been popularized over the last several years as a low-emissions fuel aimed at helping commercial and industrial sectors transition away from fossil fuels.
However, the current unprecedented electricity demand presents a problem for using electrolysis, said Michael Jung, director of government affairs and public policy at Modern Hydrogen.
“Right now, it’s [artificial intelligence] data centers versus green hydrogen electrolyzers competing for the next electron on the renewable side of the grid,” Jung told Clearing Up.
Green hydrogen production is governed by the American Clean Power Association’s three pillars: time-matching, additionality and regionality, which David Brown, founder and CEO of Oregon-based Obsidian Renewables, says makes the production of green hydrogen economically unviable.
Additionality requires that hydrogen production be powered by new clean-electricity sources to avoid diverting clean energy from other uses—excluding Washington and California, which are allowed to use legacy hydro, wind and solar power. Time-matching holds that the hydrogen production process must occur during the same hours that clean electricity is generating, ensuring that production isn’t subsidized by fossil fuels when clean energy is not available. Regionality requires the hydrogen production facility to be in the same region as the electricity source to limit grid congestion.
Additionality in particular makes Brown question the feasibility of electrolysis.
“To get a green hydrogen project going, you not only have to develop a green hydrogen project, but you also have to develop new wind and solar at the same time, and so now you’ve got a super complex development project,” Brown told Clearing Up. “If you’re building that new wind and solar, you’re going to sell it to a data center, you’re not going to sell it to a brand-new startup.”
