UK-Based Hoku Energy Aims To Fill Green Hydrogen Gap In US

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Last Updated on: 24th June 2025, 12:33 am

Some people just won’t take no for an answer. US President Donald J. Trump aims to tamp down investor enthusiasm for green hydrogen here in the US, in accord with his vendetta against various forms of renewable energy. However, H2-curious investors keep popping out of the woodwork, the latest example being the UK-based global firm Hoku Energy Ltd.

The Green Hydrogen Whack-A-Mole

For those of you new to the topic, hydrogen — green or otherwise — is the soft underbelly of the global industrial economy. Hydrogen routinely surfaces in leading industrial sectors, including refining, metallurgy, and fertilizer, and to a lesser extent in food processing, health supplements, and pharmaceuticals, among others.

Hydrogen is also used as a combustible fuel in rockets and internal combustion engines. It is also an electrochemical input for the fuel cells used to propel electric vehicles and aircraft. Stationary fuel cells are also commonly used to generate electricity in situ.

Almost the entire global supply of hydrogen is currently extracted from natural gas, with coal also chipping in a portion, and now the race is on to extract hydrogen from something more sustainable. Biomass and other alternatives have emerged, but much of the investor interest has gravitated to electrolysis, in which an electrical current — ideally from renewable resources — jolts hydrogen gas loose from water (see lots more green H2 background here).

Green Hydrogen In The USA

For a general idea about the potential scalability of sustainable hydrogen in the global economy, take a look at the goings-on over in China. Still, China is a case unto itself. The European Union is more representative of the pitfalls that can befall government efforts to support a new global industry. High costs, supply chain bottlenecks, and a lackluster response from off-takers have been pulling the rug out from under various green hydrogen ventures in Europe and elsewhere around the world.

Policy misdirection hasn’t helped, either. Earlier this year, the US think tank RMI advised the EU that its jack-of-all-trades approach to hydrogen deployment is counterproductive. Instead of promoting hydrogen for individual vehicles and buildings, RMI suggested that the EU focus on high-impact industrial users.

The policy situation over here in the US is, of course, worse now that the Oval Office is occupied by a malevolently incompetent Commander-in-Chief. Among the federal initiatives to fall under the Trump chopping block is the Biden-era Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program. The program included a carve-out for extracting hydrogen from domestic natural gas, but the main emphasis was on supporting a more diversified hydrogen supply chain with a focus on extracting sustainable H2 from agricultural waste and other biomass as well as water.

Wiggle Room For New Stakeholders In The Green H2 Industry

The death of the Hydrogen Hubs program was a blow to the US green hydrogen movement, but not a lethal blow. After all, US presidents come and go, and Trump will go — peacefully one hopes, this time — at the appointed date of January 20, 2029, which is just around the corner in about 3.5 years.

Meanwhile, investors and other stakeholders are playing the long game. Take the California water resources firm Cadiz, Inc., for example. The company has about 45,000 acres of California real estate under its belt, and it is planning to establish a clean energy campus at its sprawling Cadiz Ranch holdings in San Bernardino County.

Cadiz Ranch hosts agriculture operations and related elements including highways, railways, and pipelines, providing energy developers with a head start on transportation infrastructure.

One step in the energy plan occurred last October, when the Madrid-based global firm RIC Energy announced plans to set up a green hydrogen facility at the site, leveraging the existing infrastructure alongside solar energy for the electrolyzers. RIC anticipates providing green hydrogen for fuel cell cars and trucks as well as electricity generation, regardless of the ongoing skepticism regarding fuel cell vehicles in the US.

Another step took place last week, when Hoku Energy came onboard Cadiz Ranch. The global firm is headquartered in the UK and lists affiliates in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, India, and the US.

Though the details are yet to be hammered out, Cadiz anticipates that Hoku will develop an integrated system featuring sustainable H2. “The Hoku project could include green hydrogen production facilities, large-scale renewable and low carbon power generation, large scale battery storage facilities, and integrated digital infrastructure, such as data centers, on the leased property or integrated with facilities off the leased property,” Cadiz explained in a press statement.

“Together, the RIC and Hoku projects are expected to position Cadiz Ranch as one of the largest clean energy campuses and green hydrogen production hubs in North America,” Cadiz emphasized.

Next Steps For The USA

The Cadiz energy campus is not evidence that the green hydrogen industry is picking up momentum in the US, but it does demonstrate that a spark of life continues to exist here. Still, the pace will have to pick up if fossil-sourced hydrogen is to be kicked out of the industrial supply chain and the power generation field as well.

The data center boom is among the factors stimulating demand for fossil-sourced hydrogen. The California data center as-a-service developer ECL, for example, unveiled its new $8 billion data center campus near Houston on June 20. Called ECL TerraSite-TX1, the project is billed as “the first fully sustainable 1GW AI Factory data center.” As described by ECL, the campus is designed for an eventual capacity of 2 gigawatts.

The “sustainable” element is a matter of perspective. The off-grid facility is powered by zero-emission hydrogen fuel cells. So, unlike other data centers, poisoning the local air supply with gas power plant emissions is not part of the plan. The fuel cells also produce water as a byproduct, which ECL applies to assist with data center cooling.

However, the hydrogen for the fuel cells is not produced on site. ECL states that three different pipelines converge on the campus to guarantee a reliable 24/7 supply of energy to the campus, but they do not state how much, if any, of the hydrogen will come from non-fossil sources.

Texas hydrogen stakeholders are reportedly racing to fill the demand for hydrogen with low-cost product sourced from natural gas, but BloombergNEF is among the analysts anticipating that green hydrogen will have space to compete in Texas.

Keep an eye on the firm Energy Abundance Development Corporation for another interesting development in the off-grid data center area. Earlier this year the company announced plans to build the new “Data City” 5-gigawatt data center hub near Laredo, Texas. When fully built out, the project will total 6 gigawatts.

Energy Abundance states that natural gas will be the initial source of fuel for the campus’s gas turbine power plant, with the aim of transitioning to green hydrogen as supplies become available. Whether or not the green part of the plan will materialize remains to be seen. On a positive note, the global turbine industry is already cranking out multi-fuel turbines designed to transition from gas to hydrogen, so stay tuned for more news in that area.

Image (cropped): The green hydrogen industry continues to show signs of life in the US, despite the abrupt shift in federal energy policy this year (screenshot courtesy of US DOE).