SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Hydrogen has a critical role to play as the US and the world accelerate toward net-zero-carbon economies. This is driven by ambitious goals and programs such as DOE’s Hydrogen Earthshot which aims to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen to $1-per-1-kilogram-in-1-decade (“111”) and the upcoming $8 billion ($8B) DOE investment in Regional Hydrogen Hubs. There is an urgent need to consider energy justice as a central piece of this transition, as indicated by the federal Justice40 initiative that promises to deliver at least 40 percent of the overall benefits from Federal invest-ments in climate and clean energy to disadvantaged communities. One of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the US is the industrial sector. Within the industrial sector, both the chemical and steel manufacturing show promise for using hydrogen for hard-to-decarbonize in-dustries, as well as decarbonizing electricity. Many of these industrial activities are co-located with disadvantaged communities, and so hydrogen offers a rare opportunity to deliver benefits—jobs, carbon emissions reduction, local air and environmental pollution minimization—directly to these communities. Compared to wind and solar energy, hydrogen power is relatively underdeveloped in the US. There is an immediate need for a greater understanding of how hydrogen power can benefit hard-to-decarbonize industries in terms of better environmental health outcomes, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and jobs. Our discussions with industry, government, and non-profit groups highlight the dearth of information most decision-makers have about hydrogen. Most do not know how it could be advantageous for hard-to-decarbonize industries, what parameters are most important in siting decisions, or how to talk to communities about the advantages of being early adopters of this technology. Even if we understand the political, environmental, and technical constraints in siting hydrogen, we are largely unaware of the social, health, and environmental implications that siting should consider, or of what needs communities might have that these technologies could address. We propose to develop a public participation geographic information science/systems (PPGIS) framework and software called SEEJusT (Siting Energy for Equity and a Just Transition) that directly addresses these challenges. Our goal is to develop a tool that uses best practices energy justice, with a focus on procedural justice, to give communities a greater voice in the planning process and allow them to understand and plan a more equitable distribution of resources. SEEJusT will (1) collect information directly from members of disadvantaged communities or DACs (as opposed to just mapping externally observed metrics) through its novel PPGIS approach, (2) inte-grate this with economic, pollution, and carbon intensity information from hydrogen siting, and (3) enable stakeholders—DACs, industry, government, and non-profits— to evaluate the benefits and shortcomings of individual and regional investments in hydrogen siting. SEEJusT and the proposed work is closely aligned with the DOE-EERE high-level goals described in the FOA Topics, focusing on helping develop equitable and inclusive innovative technology solutions that equitably transition America to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions… ensuring the clean energy economy benefits all Americans, especially… those historically underserved by the energy system and overburdened by pollution. The proposed work and tool also directly addresses listed outcomes, including focusing on [d]ecarbonizing energy-intensive industries and the elec-tricity sector, [m]ethods and processes for the incorporation of procedural justice, [i]ntegration of social science or multi-disciplinary approaches, [a]dvancements for economic, planning, and/or standardized business models for justice-focused outcomes., and [h]ydrogen and fuel cell technologies that innovatively maximize participation of and/or benefit to communities directly.
