Granholm announces goal to make hydrogen power, EV batteries more affordable

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Friday announced new goals to lower the cost of clean energy and other climate change technologies, including reducing the cost of hydrogen and batteries for electric vehicles.

In particular, Granholm said that she wants to reduce the price of hydrogen energy by 80 percent before 2030 and said this would make it “competitive with natural gas,” during remarks at the White House’s international climate summit.  

In hydrogen fuel cells, a reaction between hydrogen and oxygen can produce electricity. 

She also aims to cut battery cell prices in half in order to make electric vehicles more affordable. 

The energy official also said that the administration will aim to “dramatically” reduce the cost of industrial carbon capture, still-developing technology that seeks to pull carbon from the air. She added that there would be an increase in incentives for “large-scale” efforts around the world. 

“This is our generation’s moonshot,” Granholm said. “Less than a decade after President Kennedy declared our nation’s choice to go to the moon, we planted an American flag on that cratered surface, and today we choose to solve the climate crisis.”

The department has previously set a goal to cut solar costs by 60 percent by 2030.