Best part of the news yesterday regarding up to 123 new #hydrogen refueling stations in CA is that theoretically they can all be 100% green H2 based on who got the awards. This surely will not happen but seems like an indicator of CA getting to 100% green H2 early. A thread 1/

CA currently requires 33% of hydrogen to be derived from renewable resources. Currently only a few stations utilize electrolyzes so the remainder must come from RNG/biogas. CA is currently above that requirement and the 2 Shell stations in Sacramento are now 100% renewable. 2/

CA is behind schedule on the original plan of spending $20M annually to have 100 stations by the end of 2020 so with the requirement of wanting to go 100% green in the future and us being behind schedule maybe it's not a surprise of who the awards went to. 3/

All awardees are basically heavyweights in this industry or have great partners. FirstElement Fuel (FEF) is leader in CA as has over half of current operational stations here, more on them later. Equilon Enterprises/Shell has already been active in green H2, working with both 4/

#NelAsa and #ITMPower but odds to go with Nel as they already have stations in CA. Obviously for all of these companies we await actual details but makes most sense they will use green H2 or will be supplied green H2 in near future based on Shells plans to go net zero by 2050. 5/

As of last year Iwatani was "Japan's only fully integrated supplier of hydrogen and supplied to its base of 26 hydrogen-refueling stations in Japan." They bought 4 stations in CA last year and have the collab agreement with #ITMPower so very likely they will utilize green H2. 6/

What is not as clear is FirstElement Fuel plans with green H2. Currently the majority of their stations are 33% renewable but have stated they are looking to get that number higher (TrueZero)but no set date.But here is what thread is mostly about.
https://cafcp.org/stationmap  7/

Key for my hope of them ramping up on renewable % is AirLiquide. They invested $12M in FEF and they have a long-term H2 supply agreement together and AirLiquide is building a $150M plant (Las Vegas) that will eventually produce 30 tons of renewable (RNG) liquid H2 a day. 8/

RNG has different production methods so unsure how renewable overall for new FEF refueling stations but I'm assuming large increase from 33%. Whatever it may be I'm more wondering how Air Liquide's 20% ownership in Hydrogenics, now Cummins, may impact these stations, if at all.9/

Cummins and AirLiquide are working on 20MW electrolyzer plant and Cummins has great tech acquired from Hydrogenics to use for green H2 stations. Can AirLiquide use their equity in Cummins to influence FEF? Or for economic reasons wait for electrolyzers in the future in CA? 10/

If RNG produced H2 is not 100% green then I could argue that if FEF/AirLiquide doesn't utilize some electrolyzer produced green H2 then they may eventually give up market share to Nel and ITM in CA as latter companies will benefit from both marketing green H2 and lower costs 11/

Biggest point is that these awards look to be amazing news for getting to 100% green H2 and even though CA has not kept up with original plan it seems they are reading the room, so to speak, and seeing how important green H2 is. CA can still lead if they push for green H2. 12/12

P.S. I did a thread in the past that discussed @MitsuiLtd having invested $53M USD in FirstElement Fuel and they obviously benefit from these awards, unsure about any impact on green H2 stations though. I also noted how #HexagonAsa most likely benefits. Many winners of course.