Billions in new revenue could be realized early in the transition.
Dan Rastler is the manager of EPRI’s Hydrogen-Electric Economy Program. Contact him at drastler@epri.com.
In a hydrogen-electric economy, power companies could see very large market opportunities—and play a major role in enabling and accelerating implementation. So concludes a new white paper, The Roles and Opportunities for Power Companies in the Hydrogen-Electric Economy, by EPRI and the Hydrogen Utility Group (HUG).
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HUG, founded in October 2005 by nine power companies, with the support of DOE, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), EPRI, and the National Hydrogen Association, was initiated as a way to accelerate utility integration of promising hydrogen energy-related business applications.
Meeting the needs for a hydrogen-electric economy could represent an important new convergence between the utility and transportation sectors. Our analysis indicates that, under some scenarios, annual new revenue on the order of $1 billion to $5 billion could be realized during the first-phase transition period via use of distributed electrolysis systems. The long-term revenue opportunity exceeds $200 billion/year in a fully developed market with potentially higher operating margins.