New hydrogen hub will create 20,000 jobs and may power SEPTA buses and trash trucks

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said Tuesday that a new hydrogen hub announced by President Joe Biden last week could make the Philly region “the center of the clean energy universe” and create 20,000 union jobs in coming years.

Hydrogen produced in the hub is expected to power 1,400 SEPTA buses and 300 Philadelphia garbage trucks in coming years. Philadelphia Gas Works is another possible location for a hydrogen project.

And Shapiro said that Monroe Energy, which currently makes jet fuel at a refinery in Delaware County, has pledged to convert to “sustainable fuel production with the help of clean hydrogen.”

A portion of those workers will be trained through unions in a partnership with local colleges and universities, including Cheyney, the oldest historically Black university in the nation, located in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Biden made the announcement last Friday while in Philadelphia, saying the U.S. Department of Energy would spend $7 billion to launch seven regional clean hydrogen hubs across the country. Two of those will include parts of Pennsylvania — a key battleground state in next year’s presidential election.

The Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub, known as MACH2, would be largely centered in Philadelphia and include all of Delaware and parts of South Jersey and Southeastern Pennsylvania. Parts of Western Pennsylvania would be included in the Appalachian Hydrogen Hub, known as ARCH2, which will include West Virginia and Ohio.

The MACH2 Hub would get $750 million from the DOE to build off, or use, existing petroleum infrastructure and pipelines to develop facilities that draw from renewable and nuclear electricity to produce hydrogen.

The process uses electrolysis, an electric current that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen. Electrolyzer facilities would have to be built to achieve that.

Union workers would be hired through Project Labor Agreements, which are legal agreements between construction contractors, project owners, and construction unions.

“I’m competitive as hell,” Shapiro said. “And so when we had an opportunity to land, not just one hydrogen hub, but two, we went all in. We are the only state in the nation to land two regional hubs.”

Plans call for $14 million in federal funding for regional Workforce Development Boards that will serve as partners for college training and pre-apprenticeships. The Department of Energy anticipates that the hub will create 20,800 direct jobs. Of those, 14,400 would be in construction over a decade or more to build and retrofit facilities. And 6,400 permanent jobs would be created.

Cheyney University President Aaron A. Walton said the school will be part of an “emerging public-private partnership” to design a regional safety training lab.

“This lab will provide opportunities for individuals to gain the knowledge and skill as entry-level employees, in addition to exposing underrepresented populations to careers in clean energy,” Walton said, adding that lab “will create opportunities for Black and brown people in areas where they traditionally have been underrepresented.”

The hubs were the result of a competition among 33 proposals submitted from across the country. The DOE’s goal is to produce low-cost, clean hydrogen with zero or near-zero carbon emissions.

As of now, it is unclear where all the renewable energy would come from to create the electricity needed for the electrolyzers.

Solar project proposals already face pushback in rural communities where utility-scale arrays, or large solar farms, are largely placed. Offshore wind in New Jersey faces stiff opposition by residents and economic roadblocks such as rising costs and high interest rates.

Hydrogen produced by using renewable energy is known as “green,” and hydrogen produced by nuclear energy is known as “pink.” Hydrogen produced by fossil fuels is known as “blue” and has the goal of capturing and storing greenhouses gases given off in the process.

Hub officials say they expect to generate mostly green and pink hydrogen, which don’t produce greenhouse gases.

The hubs have received criticism from environmental groups, including the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, which says the DOE is throwing taxpayer money “at a false solution to the climate crisis by stimulating dirty energy development that will increase greenhouse gas emissions and pollution and degrade air and water quality.”

The environmental advocacy nonprofit says that, as of now, most hydrogen produced uses natural gas, which produces greenhouse gases — though the goal would be capture and store those.

The group is skeptical about the ability to ramp up renewables for the electrolysis and said “nuclear power plants in our region are already nearing the end of their targeted life.”

Joseph Otis Minott, executive director of Clean Air Council, said hydrogen production is “incredibly energy-intensive — even green hydrogen is a much less efficient way for industry to decarbonize compared to using renewable energy directly. Green hydrogen may be able to play a future role in specific end-uses that cannot otherwise be electrified.”

But outgoing Mayor Jim Kenney, who supported the effort to land the hub, said it will be a benefit to the region.

“I will sit back and in 2½ months watch everything grow and be happy that I had some little part in it and be proud of all the people behind me that will continue to move this thing forward,” Kenney said. “So let’s go hydrogen.”