Green Hydrogen Coalition Announces HyBuild™ Carolinas, an Initiative to Accelerate an Inclusive Clean Energy Transition in North and South Carolina

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Nov. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Green Hydrogen Coalition (GHC) – an educational nonprofit dedicated to advancing the role of green hydrogen to accelerate a carbon-free energy future – today announced the launch of a new initiative, HyBuild™ Carolinas. This effort will catalyze momentum to achieve mass-scale, low-cost, delivered green hydrogen in North and South Carolina, driving multi-sectoral decarbonization and local economic development.

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This initiative engages participants from across the green hydrogen ecosystem in an inclusive platform through convenings and analytical studies. HyBuild Carolinas will co-develop a regional vision and roadmap for accelerating the role of green hydrogen in North and South Carolina's environment and economy.

The GHC defines green hydrogen as "hydrogen produced from non-fossil fuel feedstocks and has climate integrity (emits zero or de minimis greenhouse gas emissions on a lifecycle basis)." Hydrogen is a globally traded commodity that – when produced from renewable and carbon-free sources – can decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors, including heavy-duty transportation, firm dispatchable power, industrial processes, shipping, and aviation. The opportunity for abundant, low-cost, renewable and zero-carbon sources of energy in the Carolinas makes alternative pathways for producing green hydrogen possible. The launch of HyBuild Carolinas is timely, given the urgent need to find alternatives to fossil fuels to reduce energy costs, increase energy security, and ensure resiliency.

"As the largest airline in the Carolinas, we're proud to support HyBuild Carolinas, which will play a critical role in accelerating the development of green hydrogen in one of our most important markets. Decarbonizing air travel requires a collaborative approach across all sectors of the economy, and the Green Hydrogen Coalition is helping to lead the way in North Carolina and South Carolina. Green hydrogen is a key element to scaling sustainable aviation fuel and hydrogen propulsion, two cornerstones of American's strategy to reach destination net-zero by 2050."

• Jill Blickstein, Vice President of Sustainability, American Airlines

"Nucor is proud to be an Advisor to HyBuild Carolinas. The green economy is being built on steel, and Nucor's clean, recycled steel is building our nation's clean energy infrastructure while also helping the world meet its climate goals. Nucor is actively engaged in and supporting the exploration of a variety of advanced decarbonization technologies. We believe green hydrogen, where feasible, will have a key role in our sustainable future."

• Greg Murphy, Executive Vice President of Business Services and General Counsel, Nucor Corporation

HyBuild Carolinas is supported by key industry stakeholders from across the green hydrogen value chain, including scalable consumers, renewable developers, utilities, equipment providers, and infrastructure owners and operators. The initiative will receive input from a diverse range of Advisors and Supporting Partners, including environmental organizations, academic and research institutions, and workforce leaders.

"Green hydrogen is a key technology for both deep decarbonization and the preservation and creation of high-quality, family-sustaining jobs. Hydrogen can reduce emissions while leveraging both our existing infrastructure and the skills that exist in the current workforce. This is an opportunity for workers from underserved communities to be trained for a career in sectors from construction to manufacturing to power generation."

• Brad Markell, Executive Director, AFL-CIO

In the near-term, HyBuild Carolinas will undertake analyses to understand green hydrogen demand and enabling infrastructure scenarios to establish a vision for achieving mass-scale, low-cost green hydrogen in the Carolinas and advance a clean and just energy transition. The current scope of work is supported by donations from Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, Siemens Energy, and Williams.

"Duke Energy is uniquely positioned in the Carolinas with a strong base of carbon-free nuclear energy and fast-growing renewables that can contribute to hydrogen production. We will need carbon-free dispatchable resources – like hydrogen – to achieve our ambitious emission reduction goals and we are grateful to the Green Hydrogen Coalition for their leadership as we work to engage our peers, customers, other potential offtakers and all other stakeholders to build support for a hydrogen hub in the region. Collaborations such as these will be critical to moving the hydrogen economy forward."

• Swati Daji, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Strategy and Planning, Duke Energy

"Williams believes we can leverage our natural gas transportation infrastructure to scale the development of hydrogen hubs and a clean hydrogen economy. Our existing energy network serves some of the nation's largest markets and is well positioned to meet future hydrogen demand of domestic end users in a safe, efficient and economical manner."

• Brian Hlavinka, Vice President of New Energy Ventures, Williams

"When it comes to building a decarbonized future, we know that we can't do it alone. Collaboration between willing partners across the globe will be the key to delivering clean hydrogen solutions that will not only be reliable, but also make economic sense within our energy infrastructure. We will need to consistently expand renewable energy sources and increase sector coupling, meaning the integration of renewables with Power-to-X solutions using green hydrogen. Siemens Energy is proud to support HyBuild Carolinas to help lead the development of the hydrogen economy in the Carolinas and across the U.S."

• Rich Voorberg, President, Siemens Energy North America

Future work will focus on maximizing the community value proposition for green hydrogen in the region by quantifying community benefits from a green hydrogen economy, such as pollution reduction, economic development, and job creation.

"The GHC is thrilled to engage more deeply in the Carolinas, which has all of the necessary ingredients to drive a successful green hydrogen economy. The Carolinas feature at-scale prospective uses for green hydrogen, forward-thinking leaders who are committed to making rapid progress, and access to enabling infrastructure across the value chain. With a growing energy crisis in Europe, North and South Carolina are well-positioned to provide green hydrogen that will drive the global clean energy transition."

• Janice Lin, Founder and President, Green Hydrogen Coalition

The GHC's HyBuild Carolinas initiative will create the foundation for faster progress, and its publicly available findings will help inform any regional federal hydrogen hub funding applications. As a mission-driven effort for public benefit, HyBuild Carolinas aims to ensure that the resulting regional vision for hydrogen is inclusive, has climate integrity, and creates exciting opportunities for local communities.

To learn more about HyBuild Carolinas and to get involved in the platform, visit https://www.ghcoalition.org/hybuild-carolinas

About Green Hydrogen Coalition

The Green Hydrogen Coalition (GHC), a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization, is dedicated to facilitating practices and policies to advance the production and use of green hydrogen in all sectors where it will accelerate a carbon-free energy future.

HyBuild™ North America is the GHC's platform to architect low-cost, mass-scale green hydrogen hubs throughout the continent. The first regional focus of the platform, HyBuild Los Angeles, was launched in 2020 and has identified a pathway to achieve $2/kg delivered green hydrogen costs in the Los Angeles Basin to serve multi-sectoral offtakers, reduce air pollution, and create diversely skilled local jobs. HyBuild Carolinas will leverage best practices from HyBuild Los Angeles, with reverence to the unique energy and stakeholder landscape in the Carolinas.

To learn more about the GHC, visit https://www.ghcoalition.org/

SOURCE Green Hydrogen Coalition