The largest gas utility in the United States revealed a proposal on Thursday for what would be the largest green hydrogen network, according to a company press release.
SoCalGas-a division of Sempra Energy (NYSE: SRE)-has announced its plans for the Angeles Link, a network designed to help California achieve net-zero by 2045.
SoCalGas has referred to the green hydrogen network as one of the world's largest clean energy infrastructure systems.
As proposed, the Angeles Link could deliver enough green hydrogen to displace as much as 25% of the natural gas that SoCalGas currently supplies. SoCalGas currently supplies gas to 22 million homes.
Part of the project is destined to include a new pipeline to transport the hydrogen from parts of the state that have large renewable energy resources to the Los Angeles area.
The notion of green hydrogen has increased in popularity-at least in the media-in recent days. Today's reality is, however, that green hydrogen is cost-intensive.
But economies of scale could help lower those costs, according to SoCalGas.
Green hydrogen is produced through the electrolysis of water in electrolyzers powered by wind, solar, and possibly geothermal. Green hydrogen not only relies on water-and lots of it-but on purified water. And it requires electricity to distill that water, Irina Slav wrote for Oilprice earlier this month.
But green hydrogen is seen by many as a critical component of the energy transition.
SoCalGas said it is now working to define the scope of the project, the timeline for construction, and the timeline to get the facility operational. The company that will ultimately produce the hydrogen has not yet been named.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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Julianne Geiger is a veteran editor, writer and researcher for Oilprice.com, and a member of the Creative Professionals Networking Group. More