Green hydrogen producers in the US are facing increasing competition for access to renewable energy, while new federal tax rules are complicating their development.

In the United States, the production of green hydrogen, based on the electrolysis of water using renewable energy, is developing within an increasingly demanding framework.
Under the Inflation Reduction Act, the federal government provides tax credits (45V) to encourage the production of low-carbon hydrogen.
However, the conditions for obtaining these credits are a major obstacle for players in the sector.
These include the requirement to combine hydrogen production with renewable energy consumption on an hourly basis, a local sourcing requirement and the use of new energy facilities.
These constraints are designed to ensure that the hydrogen produced is truly green, but they add complexity to project implementation. Hydrogen producers, especially those connected to the grid, now have to compete with energy consuming businesses such as data centres, which do not have to comply with the same rules.
This puts them at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to accessing renewable energy.

Competition for access to renewables

Competition for access to renewable energy is intensifying in several states, including California, Oregon and Washington.
These regions, which are actively promoting the production of low-carbon hydrogen, are assessing the carbon footprint of each project.
To receive tax incentives, producers must prove that their electricity comes from renewable sources.
This requirement creates a real scramble for access to these resources, particularly in the face of energy-intensive sectors such as technology giants and data centres, which consume massive amounts of electricity.
Data centres in particular, which are growing in number with the expansion of artificial intelligence and cloud computing technologies, require huge amounts of energy.
This competition for available electricity weighs heavily on green hydrogen projects, especially those that rely on electricity grids.
The development of hydrogen projects faces rising costs and increasingly long connection times.
This situation makes so-called "off-grid" hydrogen projects even more attractive, where producers develop their own energy facilities and thus avoid direct competition with other users of renewable electricity.
Another major obstacle for green hydrogen projects is the traceability of the electricity used.
The new rules imposed by the Inflation Reduction Act require renewable electricity consumption to be tracked in real time, on an hourly basis.
This means that producers have to prove that the energy they use is green at the moment they produce hydrogen.
This hourly tracking is a technological challenge, as few systems are currently able to certify the origin of energy with such precision.

Only the PJM GATS platform in the US offers hourly tracking of renewable energy certificates, which further complicates access to tax credits for generators.
For grid-connected projects, this requirement adds another layer of difficulty.
In fact, it is often impossible to guarantee that the power being drawn from the grid is entirely from renewable sources, especially in regions where the supply of green power is already saturated by demand.

Challenges and prospects

Faced with these challenges, some market players are adopting alternative solutions.
Matt McMonagle, CEO of NovoHydrogen, explains that his company favours a model in which it develops its own renewable energy sources directly connected to its electrolysers.
This approach guarantees the traceability of the electricity used and frees the company from the constraints of competing for renewable energy via public grids.
For other NovoHydrogen projects, however, grid connection is still necessary, not least because of the large amounts of energy needed to produce hydrogen.
In other cases, companies such as H2B2 Electrolysis Technologies are developing strategies to vertically integrate their activities.
This gives them greater control over their renewable energy supply while optimising production costs.
However, the hourly tracking of renewable electricity remains a major challenge, especially for projects located in regions where the tracking infrastructure is not yet in place.
The pressure on US power grids is only increasing.
It is predicted that up to 19 GW of additional capacity will be needed by 2035 to meet the demand for renewable energy.
This massive demand, fuelled by the electrification of transportation and the rise of new technologies, further complicates energy access for hydrogen projects.
For hydrogen producers, the rise of these competitors is a significant challenge.
The capacity of grids to deliver clean energy in sufficient quantities is becoming increasingly limited, requiring innovative supply strategies to secure long-term energy resources.