The First Public Hydrogen Authority – FPH2 has announced further progress in developing a diversified California renewable hydrogen supply portfolio by means of new and advancing project partnerships that are designed to serve public agencies, transit fleets, and large stationary users. These partnerships go on to represent a strategic step in expanding in-state production of renewable hydrogen while supporting California’s broader goals of energy diversity, grid resilience, and economic development.
FPH2 is collaborating with developers of large-scale hydrogen production facilities in Northern and Southern California via multiple California-based renewable pathways. These include electrolytic hydrogen from co-located solar and hydrogen from sustainably sourced biogenic materials such as woody waste coming from wildfire mitigation along with diverted organic waste. Together, these projects are creating a more resilient and diversified clean energy ecosystem and elevating California’s leadership in zero-emission infrastructure.
According to R. Rex Parris, Chairman of FPH2, “For years, hydrogen has carried a reputation for being expensive, and the supply has been unreliable. What we are seeing now is different. “Projects in development across California are demonstrating that renewable hydrogen can be produced at scale and deployed to serve public needs at competitive price points. By working together, we are moving the market toward long-term affordability, increasing California’s clean energy diversity, and building the logistics to bring clean hydrogen reliably to transit agencies, local governments, and new commercial partners.”
Elemental Clean Fuels, which has large projects on the West Coast and Southwest, is acquiring one of FPH2’s priority renewable hydrogen projects in Los Angeles County. As part of the expansion of its North American platform, Elemental will design, finance, and construct the solar-powered electrolytic hydrogen facility. Elemental Clean Fuels is a leader in the clean fuels industry with operations across the United States and Canada that are focused on developing low-carbon fuel production assets that promote energy resilience, decarbonization, and long-term affordability. Elemental recently closed a strategic transaction with Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, which bolsters its capital base and leaves Elemental with significant financial and operational resources to implement its business plan.
This acquisition is another step in Elemental’s growth of its portfolio of high-quality renewable fuel infrastructure projects and its commitment to being a leading clean fuels platform in North America.
The project is intended to deliver cost-competitive zero-emission renewable hydrogen to large stationary users, including data centers, microgrids, and hydrogen-capable turbines, as well as transit agencies, port operations, and goods movement as well as logistics.
As per Elemental Clean Fuel’s CEO, Zachary Steele, “Elemental Clean Fuels is proud to partner with FPH2 at a moment when renewable hydrogen development in California is moving from conceptual plans for clean hydrogen toward execution of new production capabilities. “Together with First Public Hydrogen Authority, we are building projects designed to deliver a dependable hydrogen supply to new offtake customers and markets that need to see lower costs and more reliability.”
The facilities are designed to serve a wide variety of commercial and energy applications, including stationary fuel cells and dispatchable generation to support California’s changing grid. Hydrogen offers a storable, resilient, low-carbon energy solution for the growing data, reliability, and community energy needs as policymakers advance legislation to recognize renewable hydrogen in clean power and renewable portfolio standards and its potential use in peaker plant and firm capacity applications. FPH2’s strategy is to increase supply to make things more affordable in the long run. Retail hydrogen prices in some markets are today as high as $30 to $65 per kilogram – $13 to $28 per gallon of gasoline equivalent, reflecting the early stage of market development and limited local supply. Scaling in-state renewable hydrogen production is a critical step in making the system more reliable, reducing delivery costs, and delivering long-term affordability to California users. Those project partnerships are an important step in that market evolution.
It is well to be noted that the authority continues to work closely with transit agencies, municipal fleets, and port authorities along with port tenants as well as public-sector partners as they make the shift to zero-emission vehicles and stationary fuel cells alongside hydrogen-capable equipment to ensure fuel supply development progresses concurrently with planned hydrogen vehicles as well as equipment deployments.
FPH2 is finalizing its first aggregation for public-sector supply, and one is looking to these long-term partnerships with renewable hydrogen producers and off-takers to advance their mutual goals of energy diversity, long-term affordability, and durable public benefits. These efforts of expanding California renewable hydrogen supply portfolio are designed to reduce the cost of hydrogen over time and to support California’s economy and provide tangible public health and workforce benefits through cleaner air and new skilled jobs.
As development milestones are hit, one can expect to see more project updates in the coming months.