NREL, Sandia Lead Hydrogen Fueling Infrastructure Plan

The Energy Department on April 30 launched a new plan led by its National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) and Sandia National Labs to support the Hydrogen Fueling Infrastructure Research and Station Technology (H2FIRST) project. H2FIRST is a public-private partnership introduced in 2013 by the Energy Department and industry stakeholders to address the challenge of hydrogen infrastructure.

Established by the Energy Department's Fuel Cell Technologies Office, the H2FIRST plan will draw on existing and emerging core capabilities at the national laboratories, aim to reduce the cost and time of new fueling station construction, and enhance the stations' availability and reliability. By focusing on these aspects of the hydrogen fueling infrastructure, the partnership hopes to accelerate and support the widespread deployment of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles.

H2FIRST's technical goal is to develop and apply physical testing, numerical simulation, and technology validation to help create low-cost, high-performance materials, components, and station architectures. H2FIRST also will collect and distribute data supporting industry's efforts to reduce the costs of integrated fueling systems and networks. 2 research facilities, Sandia's Center for Infrastructure Research and Innovation in California and NREL's Energy Systems Integration Facility in Colorado, will serve as hubs for H2FIRST. See the Sandia news release and the NREL news release.

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