DEEP unveils Connecticut Clean Hydrogen Roadmap

HARTFORD, Conn. (WTNH) — The state of Connecticut has ambitious goals for reducing carbon and greenhouse gas emissions. How best to do that is still up for debate.

The Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection unveiled some ideas for using hydrogen to help with emissions goals. The department calls it the Connecticut Clean Hydrogen Roadmap.

“Its primary purpose is to identify the main drivers and barriers to clean hydrogen production and adoption,” DEEP Commissioner Katie Dykes said.

The state hired the firm ENGIE Impact to examine the pros and cons of using hydrogen to reduce greenhouse gases.

“Connecticut has very ambitious decarbonization goals,” ENGIE impact senior manager Jackie Brew said.

One major obstacle is that making usable hydrogen requires electricity. That electricity has to come from renewable sources such as solar and wind for this to make environmental sense.

You also have to analyze what kinds of things can best run on hydrogen. Big vehicles like trucks work best because of the size of the fuel cells involved. Ferries and container ships can also benefit from hydrogen. However, they think hydrogen conversion would not make sense for airplanes.

This roadmap gives the state some idea of where it is best to invest.

“It gives us an opportunity to talk together about, to the extent that there are state dollars that could be directed towards support for early hydrogen adoption, what might be the best places to focus,” Dykes said.

Used in the right places, the roadmap shows hydrogen has the potential to take 472,000 tons of greenhouse gases out of Connecticut’s air by 2040. But it also needs 1.6 gigawatts of electricity, much of which Connecticut would have to get from other states.

Get ready to hear more about hydrogen over the next couple of weeks. Dykes said she is going to take her hydrogen show on the road, visiting businesses already using it, and places where it would do the most good.

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