The Greenprint assumes early supply is produced in the region using either electricity from renewable energy and nuclear assets or small-scale distributed production such as steam methane reforming with carbon capture. By developing initial hydrogen production near consumption clusters, the region minimizes distribution costs and costly infrastructure investments that may outpace the initial market need. At scale in 2030, electrolyzers can be sited near a hydrogen transmission pipeline connecting supply centers to demand centers across the region and can leverage existing electricity transmission assets. In this scenario, the region must have sufficient clean energy to meet renewable portfolio standards while also providing enough energy to run electrolyzers at capacity.

Additional production approaches include siting electrolyzers near existing generation resources to avoid congestion on the electric grid, producing hydrogen via high-temperature thermochemical production with nuclear heat, thermochemical water-splitting technology, steam methane reforming (SMR) with carbon capture, autothermal methane reforming (ATR), partial oxidations (POx) and methanol decomposition. Regardless of the method, all forms of hydrogen production in the DMV should focus on the lowest possible carbon intensity.

At low levels of adoption, given the high cost of transportation, hydrogen is most economical when produced close to demand centers. However, once hydrogen demand exceeds about 10 MT a day at a given location, the options for pipeline transport become viable. The hydrogen demand modeled reveals that a 12” pipeline to support hydrogen will become commercially viable in 2030.

Storage is a key component of a sustainable hydrogen ecosystem at scale. Many applications require storage that accommodates multiple days of hydrogen use for resiliency purposes. While below-ground geologic storage is most economical, above-ground storage options are available for regions such as the DMV, where the availability of suitable caverns is limited. Hydrogen is most often stored in gaseous or liquid form but can also be stored on the surfaces of solids or within solids for specific use cases. An estimated 2900 MT of storage capacity co-located at hydrogen production sites and an additional 1300 MT storage capacity at end-use locations is required to support a resilient and reliable hydrogen ecosystem.