About the Event

If you missed any of Darcy's Hydrogen research coverage in 2023… you missed a lot! What industry trends dominated the news in 2023? Which technology Innovators emerged with impactful and innovative solutions? How did energy operators deploy technology to address their largest problems? What problems did your peers ask Darcy about? This Event will provide the answer to all of these questions (and more!). All this will be discussed in this special event discussing the "State of Innovation" in Hydrogen production, transport, storage and end-use.

We will cover:

• Key Trends in Hydrogen from 2023: We will summarize which topics had the most traction and momentum in 2023, based on Darcy's unique viewpoint in the market. This includes conversations with our 10,000+ energy industry members, in-depth interviews with hundreds of technology startups, custom requests from our members, and the numerous Darcy Live Events that we put on throughout the year.
• Top 10 Innovators: We will provide a curated list of the 10 technology Innovators that we have selected to highlight. This list considers which Innovators are seeing interest on Darcy Connect, based on your clicks, follows, messages, and interactions, combined with Darcy's view on impact and novelty.
• Case Studies: Highlighting some of the most interesting technology and project deployment in the space to learn the lessons from practical examples.
• 2024 Sneak Preview: We will provide a sneak preview of Darcy's Hydrogen Research coverage in 2024, including an overview of which trends/topics we expect to be impactful for our members.

Key Themes in 2023

• Policy and Regulation - Policy and regulation development and tuning are a huge part of ensuring the success of a "clean hydrogen economy." The U.S. National Clean Hydrogen Strategy and Roadmap was released in June 2023, outlining the country's approach to clean hydrogen. We also finally got post-IRA clean hydrogen production standards guidance in the U.S.: the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released an updated guidance document containing a proposal for the Clean Hydrogen Production Standard (CHPS) to meet the requirements of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. This guidance establishes a target of 4.0 kgCO2e/kgH2 for life cycle greenhouse emissions associated with hydrogen production. In Europe, the EU's Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking further narrowed down their focus on research and innovation activities related to the production, distribution, storage, and end-use applications of clean hydrogen, in line with the European Green Deal and the Hydrogen Strategy.
• Project Momentum - 2023 was a great year for learning. With more projects, pilots, and feasibility studies breaking ground, passing through complex and fuzzy permitting and regulatory channels, EPC engagement, and enabling component procurement, we have a whole new host of learnings from first movers' experiences with these FOAK projects that can help guide future progress and strategic planning and investment.
• Partnerships and Consortia - Typically very isolated in operation, planning, and thought sharing, energy operators all the way down the value chain, heavy industry leaders, investors, policy leaders, nations, regions, researchers, and tech developers are increasingly pursuing strategic partnerships and participation in consortia to derisk emerging clean Hydrogen tech in various use cases and deployment scenarios, without duplicative efforts. Darcy Partners is happy to play a role in increasing this necessary new type of networking and thought sharing with adoption of high risk emerging technologies.
• Infrastructure Development - The U.S. DOE has been driving infrastructure development with the announcement and launch of the DOE's Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs, aimed to stimulate demand and explore infrastructure development. Other countries have launched similar funding opportunities and initiatives, pushing for scale-up and development of infrastructure solutions down the full Hydrogen value chain.

About the Speakers

• Policy Updates and Future Outlook - Dr. Adria Wilson, Director of U.S. Policy and Advocacy at Breakthrough Energy, has been actively involved in advocating for and researching clean hydrogen policies, and has been a prominent voice in discussions about hydrogen hubs and their impact. Dr. Wilson's leadership and expertise in clean energy policy and advocacy make her a fantastic external speaker in this session, where she will give an overview of policy updates and trends from 2023, and share her outlook for 2024.
• Hydrogen Hubs and the Research/Commercial Interface - Dr. Jack Brouwer, Professor and Chancellor's Fellow of engineering at UCI and director of the UCI Advanced Power and Energy Program and National Fuel Cell Research Center, and key founding member of the California Hydrogen Hub, ARCHES, will discuss the launch of the Hydrogen hubs seen this year, from his perspective in ARCHES, and discuss the important interface between Energy Operators, Investors, Tech Developers, and research organizations in the development of clean Hydrogen technologies.
• Project Updates - CEO of HydrogenPro, Jeff Spethmann will join the event to discuss lessons learned in commercializing their high pressure Alkaline electrolyzers and speak on their involvement and delivery of electrolyzers to the ACES Delta project. BD Rep. Kamden Maas will join us from Bayotech to discuss lessons learned in their process of successfully commissioning their first distributed Hydrogen hub, and their plans for several more in the pipeline.