Decarbon Debrief: Building the Hydrogen Value Chain
Moving the H2 conversation from concept to commercial in 2023.
🚨 The Lead
The top story of the week.
All forms of hydrogen are gaining traction yet some industry insider’s warn of a hydrogen bubble emerging. Markets are evolving quickly in mobility, industrial gas, energy storage, energy transportation, and power.
This week two more SPACs announced hydrogen acquisitions, H2B2 Electrolysis and Global Hydrogen were the target companies. Energy and climate SPACs have not performed well in the market. On average, these SPACs are down 63% from there 52-week high.
Generate Capital sees a big opportunity in transportation and industrial decarbonization. The investment firm announced an investment in renewable hydrogen project developer, Ambient Fuels.
The agreement includes a commitment to fund up to $250 million of green hydrogen infrastructure. The funding supports Ambient Fuels’ fast-growing pipeline of projects.
Ambient Fuels offers custom-engineered green hydrogen solutions, overseeing every step of execution—from project development and design to financing and construction—of its renewable hydrogen centers.
Todd’s Take:
This week I attended the World Hydrogen Leaders North America event.
Not surprisingly, a key theme was supply and demand. At an event that represented many of the investors, producers, and supply chain, there were numerous discussions about securing offtake agreements to gain further capital commitment and ensure project success.
The versatility of hydrogen is its strength and Achilles heel. While the markets move forward with hydrogen hub announcements and further partnerships, the industry must rely on government incentives to establish the first wave of projects that are uniquely tied to areas of hydrogen demand. Read more about a few H2 hubs in an April issue of Decarbon Debrief.
Initial success within a single market will help drive further adoption to multiple markets. The hydrogen supply chain for each market must be created from nothing since it does not exist today. The commercial success for one market is a key to success for the entire hydrogen economy.
✨ This Week in Decarbonization
Highlights from the week’s most popular stories in industrial decarbonization.
🦺 U.S. DOE Selects Heidelberg Materials' New Cement Plant in Mitchell for Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program Funding
🌏 NET Power and Rice Acquisition Corp. II Secure $50 Million PIPE Commitment from SK Group and Announce Intent to Form Joint Venture to Accelerate Deployment of NET Power Plants in Asia
✅ Generate Capital partners with Ambient Fuels to scale green hydrogen projects and accelerate the decarbonization of hard-to-abate industrial sectors
🔆 AlphaStruxure, Montgomery County, MD Announce Nation's Largest Renewable Energy Powered Transit Depot and First on the East Coast to Feature On-Site Green Hydrogen Production
🧪 LanzaTech and Plastipak Partner to Produce World's First PET Resin Made from Waste Carbon
💰 Modern Hydrogen Raises $32.8 Million Series B-2 Financing to Accelerate Distributed Decarbonization of Gas into Clean Hydrogen
💸 H2B2 Electrolysis Technologies, Inc., a Global Green Hydrogen Platform Providing Bespoke Integrated Solutions Across the Hydrogen Value Chain, to Go Public on the NASDAQ via a Proposed Business Combination with RMG Acquisition Corp. III
📈 Global Hydrogen Energy LLC to Become a Publicly Traded Company Through a Business Combination With Dune Acquisition Corporation
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☁️ Capture This CO2
A single carbon capture or hydrogen project in industrial decarbonization.
Freestone Energy Center CCS
🏭 Operator: Calpine
📌 Location: Texas
⛽ Industry: Natural Gas Power Plant
🦺 Project Status: Announced
🌱 Project Type: Commercial
According to Calpine, the Freestone Energy Center is a natural gas-fired combined-cycle facility located on approximately 506 acres near Fairfield, Texas. The plant was Calpine’s first facility built in the northern part of the Texas Regional Entity market area. The Freestone Energy Center consists of four combustion turbines, four heat recovery steam generators and two steam turbine generators, configured in two largely independent power blocks.
🌍 Elsewhere
Highlights from research, data, or media partners covering the Energy Transition.
NOVA from PBS published Chasing Carbon Zero a few weeks ago. The video covers EVs in Detroit, heat pumps in buildings, methane in the Permian, offshore wind, geothermal opportunity, and the “green industrial revolution” with this energy transition.
That's it for this week. If you'd like to dive into the data a little more with me, hit reply.