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Clean hydrogen is vital to help curb carbon emissions from dirty industrial processes like making steel and fertilizer. So in 2022, the Biden Administration created a valuable new credit for hydrogen that’s made without generating lots of additional greenhouse gases, worth up to $3 a kilogram. But it’s taken a long time to determine exactly what form of hydrogen is clean enough to receive the credit. With just a couple of weeks left until the start of Trump 2.0, the Treasury Department finally unveiled its guidelines for the so-called 45V credit on Jan. 3 and, for the most part, both hydrogen producers and environmentalists are pleased.

Among final tweaks to initial guidelines issued in 2023, companies producing hydrogen with electrolyzers that split the elemental gas from water with renewable electricity will have more flexibility to use existing wind, solar or hydroelectric systems as their power source – rather than having to rely on completely new systems – and over the hours in which they’re used (contentious sticking points referred to as “incrementality” and “matching”). Older nuclear power plants slated for closure can also get the credit if they stay open longer to produce carbon-free hydrogen. Additionally, the rules create opportunities to tap landfill methane as a source of hydrogen production if that helps prevent the greenhouse gas from getting into the atmosphere. Exactly how the clean hydrogen program will work under the oil- and gas-centric Trump Administration remains to be seen.

The final rules “mark significant progress, with notable revisions to the incrementality requirement for certain nuclear power facilities and hydrogen projects in states with clean energy policies,” said Andy Marsh, CEO of PlugPower. “While these updates are encouraging, we look forward to collaborating with the new administration to refine the regulations in a way that aligns with congressional intent, supports their goal of reducing overregulation, and ensures national energy security.”

GUERIN BLASK FOR FORBES

Back in 2017, Katherine Homuth, a young Canadian tech entrepreneur, was on the hunt for a material for long-lasting sheer tights that would survive the rips, snags and runs that normally plague them. She ordered dozens of different fibers, each time wrapping them around her fingers and trying to pull them apart – and every time she did so the material broke. Finally, she discovered a material that was pretty much indestructible, whatever she tried: ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, which is used in bulletproof vests because of its dense structure.

She called distributors dozens of times, begging them to send it to her. “I finally got one spool of fiber and it cost $2,000,” she said. “I shipped it over to a factory in China, and I........

© Forbes