The US Government has unveiled the country’s first national clean hydrogen strategy.

The document lays out the Biden administration’s plans to facilitate production, storage and usage of green hydrogen in the country.

“Accelerating the deployment of hydrogen is key to achieving President Biden’s vision for an affordable, secure clean energy future,” stated Jennifer M Granholm, US Secretary of Energy.

National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi added: “This road map will align the private and public sectors on a shared path to drive faster toward a cleaner, more secure energy future.”

The strategy is based around attracting private investment, much like the Inflation Reduction Act, in order to maximise infrastructure development and uptake.

The strategy has three core tenets. The first is to target “strategic” and “high-impact” areas to apply clean hydrogen technology. These include transport and heavy industry, with hydrogen set to be used as an alternative to fossil fuels, as well as longer-term storage in conjunction with the energy grid.

The government will also look to utilise economies of scale to lower the cost of hydrogen. This will be facilitated by incentivising private-sector investments into infrastructure and innovation.

This new infrastructure will be maximised within regional hydrogen networks centred on local production and usage to maximise efficiency.

Much of the plan is based on March’s Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Clean Hydrogen report published by the US Department of Energy. The report estimated that between $85bn and $215bn would be required to scale up the US hydrogen economy by the proposed 2030 deadline.

Much of this would be levied on private companies and potentially offset by the estimated 100,000 industry jobs created in the process. Up to half of the predicted cost would be required just for the construction of midstream and end-use infrastructure, while an added third would be needed for clean energy generation.