So, what exactly is green hydrogen?
Glad you asked! Green hydrogen is hydrogen that is generated from renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar. And guess what? When used for energy, its only emission is water!
The big deal about SoCalGas’s Angeles Link is that it’s one of America’s first major moves in delivering green hydrogen. This pipeline can deliver clean fuel to the Los Angeles area, helping scale hydrogen adoption across the nation!
But how does green hydrogen actually help achieve a clean-energy economy and meet the nation’s climate goals? Here are four ways the Angeles Link can help LA on this mission:
#1: Offer a clean fuel for heavy-duty trucks
Heavy-duty trucks, like tractor trailers and large delivery trucks, contribute to 23% of greenhouse gas emissions in the vehicle sector! This sector has proven to be a hard one to electrify with batteries due to the fact that the larger your vehicle, the larger your battery needs to be. And much more energy is needed to charge these bigger batteries and meet the power-per-mile needs of long-haul delivery trips.
The Angeles Link could tackle this hard-to-decarbonize segment by replacing diesel-powered heavy-duty trucks with hydrogen fuel cell electric trucks. That could result in a displacement of up to 3 million gallons of diesel a day!
#2: Deliver renewable power to hard-to-electrify industries
While companies all over the nation are making moves to drive the transition to clean energy, some industries are hard to crack. The manufacturing processes for essential products like steel, cement, and glass rely on high heat, making them emission culprits that remain difficult to electrify. These industries need a reliable, decarbonized energy source if we want to reach net-zero emissions, and the Angeles Link can change the game by providing them with green hydrogen.
#3: Decrease dependency on imported fossil fuels
Renewable energy is our North Star: It’s clean, it’s reliable, it’s domestically produced, and it’s naturally replenished! Scaling up domestically produced clean fuels is key to energy independence. By relying more on our renewable energy, like wind and solar, and adding green hydrogen to this mix, we can decrease our dependency on imported energy sources.
#4: Green hydrogen from the Angeles Link could supplant the energy equivalent of almost 25% of the natural gas supplied to Southern California
To reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases, we need to transition from traditional fuels to new, reliable fuels. As a cleaner alternative to coal, natural gas has moved us in the right direction and has gradually risen to power about half of California’s in-state electricity production. Introducing green hydrogen into the mix can be SoCalGas’s next big step!
SoCalGas believes the Angeles Link green hydrogen infrastructure system can allow the conversion of FOUR power plants from natural gas to green hydrogen. That’s a great start to California’s journey toward lower emissions, all while maintaining good jobs in manufacturing and making heavy-duty transportation more climate friendly!
Learn more about the project at SoCalGas.com.
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