Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions  -  February 3, 2025 - By Department of Energy

DOE: Progress and Accomplishments in Clean Hydrogen — and a Look Back at Major Milestones in 2024

Momentum for clean hydrogen continued to build in 2024 across the United States and globally. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) activities continue to drive down costs, ramp up scale, and improve the performance of key technologies. See our Progress in Hydrogen and Fuel Cells fact sheet, which describes how the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office’s (HFTO’s) funding has spurred significant progress in several areas.

Here is a brief snapshot of clean hydrogen milestones from 2024:

• Private-sector investments continued to ramp up, with a 25-fold increase in electrolyzer installations (planned and installed) since 2021; more than $40 billion in private investment in the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs (H2Hubs); and over $2.9 billion of investment in more than 15 new or expanded manufacturing facilities for electrolyzers, fuel cells, and components.
• America’s hydrogen and fuel cell industry continued to partner with DOE to build domestic manufacturing and strengthen supply chains, including 52 projects across 24 states, which will enable a 10 GW per year production capacity for electrolyzers and 14 GW per year capacity for fuel cells, creating over 1,500 direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs. Additional hydrogen projects announced in 2024 included advancing innovative ways to produce hydrogen from diverse domestic feedstocks, such as coal, biomass, petcoke, household waste, industrial wastes, and waste plastics; incorporating clean hydrogen into domestic steelmaking; and supporting innovative research at small businesses.
• DOE’s leadership in research, development, and demonstration included release of HFTO’s Multi-Year Program Plan, a detailed planning document to help guide clean hydrogen innovation and research. HFTO also updated the DOE Hydrogen Program Plan, which includes input from multiple DOE offices and provides a strategic framework for the science and engineering advances critical for hydrogen technologies.
• DOE made investments to help break down critical market barriers to commercialization that require concerted, coordinated national efforts—including a historic partnership with leading financial and energy industry experts to help design and implement market mechanisms that will unlock America’s hydrogen industry and support our position as global leaders.
• Five H2Hubs were awarded funding, enabling the launch of partnerships across multiple industries and regions to build integrated networks for clean hydrogen production and use. DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations is managing the launch of seven H2Hubs in total, which will create tens of thousands of domestic jobs and put U.S. industry at the forefront of global investment in clean hydrogen.
• DOE continued to help bridge critical financing gaps to enable U.S. manufacturing, with a conditional commitment for a $1.7 billion loan guarantee to help finance the construction of up to six facilities across several states to produce clean hydrogen utilizing American-made electrolyzers. This aims to build on DOE’s prior industry-boosting successes, which have supported domestic innovation and jobs, including enabling construction of nuclear power plants, scaling up Tesla Motor Co’s manufacturing capacity in 2010, as well as loans that helped save the American automotive industry after the financial crisis of 2008. 
• DOE helped lead the Hydrogen Interagency Task Force into its second highly productive year and assisted with numerous interagency activities—including technical support to the U.S. Department of the Treasury on tax credits (e.g., the 45V Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit) and supporting the announcement of investments of $475 million for clean hydrogen at ports (by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) and more than $90 million for hydrogen fueling infrastructure for heavy-duty vehicles (by the U.S. Department of Transportation).

This column originally appeared on the U.S. Department of Energy's website.

The mission of the Energy Department is to ensure America’s security and prosperity by addressing its energy, environmental and nuclear challenges through transformative science and technology solutions.

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