FY ‘08 H2 Fuel Initiative Request Up Slightly, In Line with Initial Bush Pledge

WASHINGTON, DC – In his new budget request for fiscal year 2008, President Bush is asking for a total of almost $309 million for his Hydrogen Fuel Initiative - $307.5 million for the Energy Department and another $1.425 million for the Transportation Department.

The budget request, released early last month, includes $1.24 billion for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), the umbrella organization for the hydrogen program.

Within the total DoE request of $24.3 billion, EERE falls somewhere in the middle in terms of magnitude: the biggest single chunk is requested for nuclear weaponry in the National Security Administration ($9.4 billion), followed by the Environmental Management Office ($5.7 billion) and the Science Office ($4.4 billion). The two smallest requests are for the Legacy Management Office which handles long-term stewardship responsibilities such as pensions and benefits for former contractor workers on projects where active remediation has ended ($194 million), and the Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Office ($115 million).

The $309 million Hydrogen Fuel Initiative request is up $20 million over the FY 2007 request of 289 million which is still a mythical number, as the Alliance to Save Energy points out: Congress has still not completed the appropriation process for the current 2007 fiscal year.

Still, says DoE, the new request is consistent with President Bush’s initial commitment of $1.2 billion over five years - FY 04 to FY08 - to accelerate research and development to achieve technology readiness in 2015 and industrial commercialization of fuel cell vehicles by 2050.

At $213 million, the Hydrogen Technology program is the largest single bloc within the EERE lineup. The second largest request is for Weatherization & Intergovernmental Activities ($204.9 million), followed by Biomass and Biorefinery Systems ($179.3 million); Vehicle Technologies ($176.139 million); Solar Energy ($148.3 million); Industrial Technologies ($45.998 million); and Wind Energy ($40.069 million). The smallest request ($6.98 million) is for Facilities and Infrastructure.

Geothermal Technology and Hydropower once more were zeroed out completely.

The largest portion of the Initiative - $213 million - is requested for the core Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure Technologies (HFCIT) program, up $17.2 million over last year’s request. Smaller amounts are requested for other DoE offices which contribute to the program, such as Science ($59.5 million), Nuclear Energy ($22.6 million), and Fossil Energy ($12.450 million).

Within HFCIT, the biggest request is $44 million for fuel cell stack component r&d, followed by hydrogen storage r&d ($43.9 million), hydrogen production & delivery ($40 million), technology validation ($30 million), safety, codes & standards ($16 million), and systems analysis (11.5 million) (see charts for other details).

In terms of contributions of other offices to Hydrogen Fuel Initiative efforts in FY 2008, DoE says Fossil Energy plans to continue studies for scaling up hydrogen membrane reactors and carbon dioxide/hydrogen separation technologies for coal-based hydrogen systems. The Nuclear Energy Office will operate sulfur-iodine thermochemical and high-temperature experiments to gather data on operability and reaction rates. The Science Office will expand basic research on nano-materials for storage, catalysis for fuel cells, and bio-inspired and solar hydrogen production. It will also increase emphasis on nano-structured design, novel synthesis, and theory and modeling of the physical and chemical interactions of hydrogen with materials.

The Transportation Department plans to develop national safety standards to enable the introduction of hydrogen-powered vehicles to the market.

Other EERE key activities and milestones planned for FY 2008 include increased emphasis on hydrogen production r&d in renewable technologies and development of high-efficiency compressor and liquefaction technology for cost-effective hydrogen delivery, and ramping up of hydrogen storage materials research and engineering science, according to budget presentation viewgrafs made available to H&FCL.

In fuel cells, EERE will continue efforts to reduce $80 kW vehicle fuel cell system cost to $70/kW for high-volume production toward the 2010 goal of $45/kW. It also plans to improve electrical efficiency for natural gas/propane-fueled 5-250 kW stationary fuel cell systems to 35% at full power.

In terms of manufacturing, EERE will initiate r&d to lower manufacturing costs of fuel cells and hydrogen technologies and create a competitive domestic supplier base. And in terms of technology validation, the office will continue learning demonstrations with the auto and energy industries and validate a 250-mile driving range.

The increased requests notwithstanding, not everybody was happy with the budget request, notably the Alliance to Save Energy. In an early-February release it said Federal energy efficiency programs suffered overall cuts of 18% compared with Congress’ FY 2006 actual appropriation, the last available yardstick since FY 2007 is still hung up in Congress.

“The good news is that Congress has signaled its intent to make energy efficiency programs a priority,” said Alliance president Kateri Callahan. “The House has adopted a Continuing Resolution for the current fiscal year that adds $300 million for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs over what was provided in FY ‘06, and the Senate is poised to do the same,” she added.

“We will work with Congress to make sure that this priority for energy efficiency continues into the next fiscal year,” Callahan added.

Contacts: DoE media office, Craig Stevens, 202/586-4940; Alliance, Ronnie Kweller, 202/530-2203, rkweller@ase.org.