The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE), Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Fuel Cell Technologies Office (FCTO) is issuing this Request for Information (RFI) on behalf of its Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Program (referred to herein as the “Program”) which includes coordinated activities across all offices within DOE that are engaged in hydrogen and fuel cell activities. The Program seeks input on priority research and development (R&D) areas for reducing regulatory barriers to deployment of hydrogen technologies, with a particular focus on hydrogen infrastructure. In addition to a focus on transportation and streamlining private sector roll out of hydrogen fueling stations, the Program seeks input relating to large-scale hydrogen deployments for applications such as energy storage, grid services, hydrogen transport, natural gas blending or other end uses.

The goals of this RFI, in the context of developing and using hydrogen as an energy carrier across sectors and for diverse applications, are to: (a) Understand the effects of regulations imposed on industry, particularly the parts of industry responsible for hydrogen infrastructure; (b) Identify Federal regulations, codes, and state/local laws and identify the related compliance costs; and (c) Recommend actions to reduce the burdens of regulatory requirements. FCTO seeks feedback on:

1. Infrastructure for Near-Term Transportation Applications; 
2. Large-scale Applications; 
3. Large-scale Hydrogen Delivery and Storage; 
4. Grid Support (H2@Scale); and on topics related to the issues within this RFI that could be considered for future prizes.