Texas is world capital of oil & gas can it be a New Energy capital and lead the world in energy transition? The article focuses on Texas competitive advantage for Hydrogen energy as a vector.

Competitive Advantage

Texas has several competitive advantages including:

• Produces 2.0 mtpa of hydrogen (Grey) from natural gas for refining and Ammonia industry.
• Texas has over 1600 miles of hydrogen pipeline network retrofitted from natural gas
• The three of the operational sites for Underground Hydrogen Storage (UHS) in salt caverns are ,located in Texas
• Texas is national leader in wind energy with 92 TWh of electricity generation and close second in installed solar PV (15 GW).

Actions for the Market Development

1. Need to have clear emission reduction targets

2. A policy framework is needed to manage risk & uncertainty and get necessary capital for infrastructure projects

3. An EFFECTIVE BUSINESS MODEL for CO2 transport and storage must apply to one of the three key stages 

   1. Market Creation (Demonstration Stage)

   2. Market Growth (Pre-Commercial)

   3. Mature Industry

Additional Insights

•  Market creation stage 
  • The business model is companies can be contractor to the state.
  • Effective before established policy incentive exist
  • State funded; divided into smaller projects
  • The business is key to kick-start infrastructure development and incentivize early-movers
• Market Growth / Pre-Commercial Stage /Enabled Markets
  • Hybrid business model comprising state support in some parts of the market and managed competition in other parts. 

• Mature Markets

  • Private companies involved in the CCS chain develop & manage pipelines, hubs & storage sites without specific government direction.

  • The government's role is limited to creating the mechanism that enables CCS to be a viable business opportunity 

The Road Map 

The road maps provide host of technologies that can be researched, developed and piloted in broadly four categories for end-user market

1. Transportation /Mobility
2. Industrial
3. Building/Commercial
4. Power Generation

Next Steps

1. Policy support and framework along with emission targets are key enablers for the investment and reduce risks
2. The lowest hanging fruit in terms of technology application is to convert Grey Hydrogen into Blue Hydrogen using natural and CCS network and exiting H² pipeline system
3. Leverage existing expertise from wind energy and solar PV to generate Green Hydrogen. 
4. With Policy incentives there will be a supply 'push' for the production of clean Hydrogen in the market and a demand 'pull' in the end-user market. 

MATURE / DEVELOED MARKET

• Houston shipping channel and Corpus Christy port offers a potential to be world class hub for clean hydrogen production, consumption and exports making Texas lead in clean energy transition to Net-Zero.