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Open Date:

1/10/2025

Close Date:

4/22/2026

Eligible Recipients:

  • Educational Institutions
  • General Public
  • Local Governments
  • Native/Tribal Entities
  • Non-profits
  • Private Sector
  • State Governments

Program Purpose:

  • Energy Infrastructure

Reserved for Energy
Communities?

No

Upcoming Milestones:

Informational Webinar: February 6, 2025 at 1 pm EST

Phase 1 deadline: June 30, 2025 at 5 pm EDT

Phase 2 deadline: April 22, 2026 at 5 pm EDT

This prize closes and re-opens with each of its phases.

Bureau/Office:

Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO)

Funded by:

U.S. Department of Energy

Overview

DOE announced the launch of the Guiding Universal Indicators in Developing Ecosystems for Hydrogen (GUIDE-H2) competition. GUIDE-H2 aims to address a key challenge facing many commercial-scale hydrogen projects: delays or cancellations due to the lack of tools, training, and local support in assessing and optimizing deployments for maximum positive impact. Deployments often do not systematically consider issues such as local water use, infrastructure impacts, jobs, the full cycle from production through end use, or other factors that can result in project delays or stoppage. Consistent, universally understandable indicators that can help guide deployments and accelerate progress while enabling long term sustainability can provide significant value.

GUIDE-H2 can increase practitioner experience in developing and applying robust analytic methods to systematically assess the benefits and impacts of hydrogen deployment projects. As a result, it can incentivize sharing of best practices, enable transparency and optimization, and enhance the economic, social, and environmental benefits of hydrogen deployments—contributing to increased likelihood of project success. Outcomes can be used in hydrogen workforce development efforts, particularly based on experiential technical training and education.

Up to $200,000 is available from DOE in awards to competing teams for two phases. Phase I teams (up to six winners planned at $10,000 each) will submit reports summarizing an approach and methodology to comprehensively assess a commercial-scale hydrogen deployment project. Phase I winners will be allowed to compete in Phase II, where they will apply the proposed approach and develop a full project assessment, resulting in training tools, lessons learned and best-practice guidance to inform future assessments (three winners planned at $20,000, $40,000, and $80,000).

Diverse stakeholders including project developers, end users, communities, and investors will benefit from the hands-on application of assessment tools and resulting guidance and best practices through the GUIDE-H2 competition.

Related Resources

Additional information is available on the Resources page.

Funding Details

Funding Source:
Funding Type:
Direct Award
Total Amount Available:
$200,000
Limit per Applicant:
Estimated Awards:

Applicant Guidance

Contact Information

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