Georgia Power to support six-state Southeast Hydrogen Hub
Hydrogen holds a new opportunity to reduce carbon emissions as the company builds a future of energy for Georgia.
Georgia Power is to build the future energy grid and reduce carbon emissions across its generation fleet through a newly formed coalition of major utility companies across the Southeast.
They will work on securing federal financial support for a Southeast Hydrogen Hub.
The coalition, including Georgia Power’s parent Southern Company, will respond to the recently announced funding opportunity from the US Department of Energy, which includes $8 billion for regional hydrogen hubs and is part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
A hydrogen hub in the Southeastern US is expected to bring robust economic development benefits to the region. Hydrogen is attractive as an energy resource because it has immediate potential to accelerate decarbonization in the Southeast and across all sectors of the US economy – including transportation, which generates the country’s largest share of greenhouse gas emissions. Read more about today’s announcement here.
Earlier this summer, Mitsubishi Power and Georgia Power, alongside the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), successfully tested fuel blending of hydrogen and natural gas at both partial and full load on an M501G natural gas turbine at Georgia Power’s Plant McDonough-Atkinson in Smyrna, Georgia.
The landmark testing at Plant McDonough-Atkinson was part of a continued commitment to new research and development to build the future energy grid and reduce carbon emissions across its generation fleet, with Georgia Power already decreasing its carbon emissions by more than 60% since 2007.
Chris Womack, CEO of Georgia Power, said, “As we continue to make smart investments that help us better deliver clean, safe, reliable and affordable energy for our customers, we see incredible potential in the future use of hydrogen as part of our diverse energy mix.”
