ARCH2 hydrogen hub to hold first open house at West Virginia State University

The Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, better known as ARCH2, has scheduled a community open house at West Virginia State University at which it has invited anyone interested to learn about its projects, ask questions and speak with representatives of companies behind the federally supported enterprise.

Oct. 13 marked one year since the U.S. Department of Energy announced it selected ARCH2, a network of hydrogen-based energy and product manufacturing spanning parts of West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, for up to $925 million in federal support through a hydrogen hub program enacted via the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

A year later, the hub has secured $30 million of that potential $925 million, an initial tranche slated to cover planning and development in a planned first project phase to last up to 36 months. But it also has drawn criticism from community and environmental advocates for what they say has been a lack of transparency about the project.

Concerns of opponents persist that the enterprise could lock the region into potentially expanded fossil fuel infrastructure, drive up energy prices and fail to yield job growth. Multiple project development partners have pulled out of ARCH2 in recent months, fueling critics’ contention the project is ill-fated.

“[T]he entire ARCH2 enterprise may ultimately amount to no more than a blip — albeit a very expensive one — on Appalachia’s economic and environmental landscape,� Sean O’Leary, senior researcher at the Ohio River Valley Institute, a pro-renewable energy nonprofit think tank, said in a statement.

Open house details

ARCH2 spokesman Kyle McColgan said the open house will feature officials from the hub’s program management office and project partners.

“This will provide a great opportunity to hear from a diverse range of voices that are shaping ARCH2’s initiatives and progress,� McColgan said in an email.

ARCH2 officials previously said they plan to have open house forums for stakeholder engagement in southwestern Pennsylvania the week of Nov. 18 and northeast Ohio the week of Dec. 2 in addition to an open house in southern West Virginia the week of Nov. 4.

An email ARCH2 released to project newsletter subscribers Thursday billed the West Virginia State University open house as a chance to get “the inside scoop on the vision for ARCH2� and “help us understand what matters most to you as we move forward.�

Report: State could ‘pay the price’ for ARCH2

A research brief released by the Ohio River Valley Institute the previous week suggests any movement forward for ARCH2 may come at a steep cost to central Appalachia.

Authored by O’Leary, the brief concludes ARCH2’s economic and environmental impact will be either limited or result in higher prices, higher utility bills and higher taxes with little or no net economic benefit.

That’s because hydrogen and carbon capture are economic for only a few industries, the brief contends.

“If decisionmakers ignore economics and shoehorn hydrogen and CCS into uneconomic applications with federal dollars, taxpayers, ratepayers, and residents could pay the price,� the brief states.

ARCH2’s aim is to generate what it calls “clean,� dispatchable power, establish a new form of energy storage and decarbonize heavy industry and transportation. The network has pledged to create thousands of quality jobs, including permanent operations jobs.

But day-to-day power generation has “terrible� prospects as an end-use application for hydrogen, according to the report published in August by Energy Innovation, a San Francisco-based climate policy firm. The report defined “terrible� uses for hydrogen as unlikely to be competitive with alternatives on cost and performance.

Energy Innovation found hydrogen is “terrible� or “poor� for not only day-to-day power generation, but also for buildings, industrial process heating, short-haul marine shipping and light-duty and heavy-duty vehicles — a stated ARCH2 goal.

But the West Virginia Economic Development Authority approved a forgivable, performance- based $62.5 million loan for Mountaineer GigaSystem LLC, a subsidiary of ARCH2 project partner Fidelis New Energy, a Houston-headquartered energy transition company, in August 2023.

Per a memorandum of agreement signed by state officials, the Fidelis project is to consist of a hydrogen production facility that yields 640 metric tons per day of hydrogen, a 75-megawatt-electric biomass power plant, carbon capture equipment, a supporting carbon sequestration pipeline and wells, and supporting infrastructure for barge and train offloading and warehousing.

Carbon capture technologies permanently store carbon underground, drawing support from many fossil fuel proponents looking to retrofit climate and public health-harming coal-fired plants with the technology.

ARCH2 says critical report is ‘misleading’

The Ohio River Valley Institute has argued recent project dropouts by former partners, including Chemours and TC Energy, are evidence ARCH2 is “coming apart.�

McColgan said the brief “presents a misleading picture of ARCH2’s progress� and that the coalition’s portfolio has been “designed from the outset to remain strong, even if individual projects changed.�

The location and scope of many hydrogen production sites slated for West Virginia and surrounding states are still to be determined, sparking criticism there are too project many question marks for ARCH2 to move forward.

ARCH2 has declined to release its application to the DOE seeking award selection or a Community Benefits Plan it was required to submit as an applicant for agency funding that established project goals for community and labor engagement, workforce investment and diversity advancement. ARCH2 hasn’t pinpointed how much greenhouse gas emissions are expected from the venture.

The Ohio River Valley Institute delivered a letter to the Department of Energy in May on behalf of 54 Appalachian organizations and community groups calling for the suspension of ARCH2. The groups cited what they called “an extreme lack of transparency and meaningful community engagement during project negotiations.�

ARCH2 has said it plans to set up:

• An advisory board and community benefits steering committee comprised of regional governments, labor and trade organizations, nongovernmental organizations, academia and community groups. The committee would solicit local stakeholder input on safety and emergency planning, public data-sharing methods, and opportunities to increase benefits and limit negative impacts for host communities, workers and disadvantaged communities.
• Preliminary air quality monitoring plans to conduct baseline air quality monitoring
• A public data-reporting platform to provide project status updates, information about community advisory mechanisms, including their recommendations and ARCH2’s response, and engagement events