A potential lucrative and inefficient loophole in 45V - combining RNG with a natural gas combined cycle power plant with carbon capture to get both 45Q carbon capture credits and 45V hydrogen credits at a cost of $6B to taxpayers for one power plant. I blame this on John Podesta’s team in Biden’s Executive Office of the President for holding the Hydrogen tax credit hostage by turning it into a grid and renewables tax credit.

The Biden administration’s interpretation of the hydrogen 45V credit doesn’t do what the law set out to do - it creates barriers to hydrogen rather than helping it get off the ground. Here are some of the mitigating factors they put into their interpretation of the rule. Together, these can make projects work. Unfortunately it may not be enough for rapid commercial expansion.

This post is about reformation H2 (blue H2) under 45V - how 45V treats it and the implications of treating it otherwise

Analysis of what the hourly averaging for electrolytic 45V means

Oversizing hydrogen pipelines to use them for storage will be the lowest cost way to store renewable energy. Click through to read more.

This post focuses on more broad implications for H2 under the Trump administration. There are major opportunities available if there is a coordinated response in the administration - but H2 may fly under the radar of important things

With Trump coming back to office and promising cuts to clean energy, where do the hydrogen hubs and hydrogen’s 45V credits sit? The awarded hubs are safe. Strict final 45V guidance would be a huge problem for industry because it will face an overturn in courts - H2 investments will be stalled out in the meantime.

To reach zero emissions in transportation, the emissions for charging or fueling the vehicle need to be accounted for. To zero these out with BEVs is expensive and getting moreso. The total infrastructure cost per car for H2 cars will be 1/3 that of most BEVs. Worse, the costs for grid upgrades for BEVs will be rate-based to make them a regressive tax for people that don't want BEVs.

If Plug goes bankrupt, it isn't a red flag for the entire industry. It's a sign of another company spreading themselves too thin and trying to build technology that is too advanced and expensive for them to handle.

Liquid hydrogen is hard. Without the right partners, an H2 company pursuing LH2 risks going under. With the right partners they require strong commercial protections to avoid going under. In addition, LH2 is too expensive, making it a niche use case in H2. Mitigate your risks accordingly.

The fall of Universal Hydrogen was not an indictment of the hydrogen ecosystem - but instead was a failure of investors to do diligence on a company design that was destined to fail.

How we move hydrogen. In the EU, compressed gaseous hydrogen reigns owing to lower cost - in part because the EU has approved new carbon trailers and the US DOT has no way to do that. In the US we use liquid - which is overpriced. End game is open-access regional and national H2 pipelines.

H2 production pathways, their emissions, and commercial viability

New hydrogen uses are both required and likely in the expanding hydrogen economy. Read about the present and upcoming ones.