Hydrogen Fueling Infrastructure Development

The availability of stations providing reasonably priced hydrogen in places where vehicles will be deployed remains a key challenge to the adoption of this technology. To address this challenge, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) launched H2USA—a public-private collaboration with federal agencies, automakers, hydrogen providers, fuel cell developers, national laboratories, and additional stakeholders. H2USA is focused on advancing hydrogen infrastructure to support more transportation energy options for U.S. consumers.

As of 2023, there are 59 open retail hydrogen stations in the United States. Additionally, there are at least 50 stations in various stages of planning or construction. Most of the existing and planned stations are in California, with one in Hawaii and 5 planned for the northeastern states. As the market expands, hydrogen fueling stations will be matched with vehicle rollout as both grow together. Customers are expected to have similar experiences at hydrogen fueling stations as at gasoline stations, with most hydrogen dispensers being added at existing gasoline stations.

The Alternative Fueling Station Locator allows users to search for public and private hydrogen fueling stations. Suggest new hydrogen stations for inclusion in the Station Locator using the Submit New Station form.

Safety, Codes, and Standards

Many of the hydrogen safety codes and standards today are based on practices from the chemical and aerospace industries. DOE is coordinating the efforts of codes and standards organizations to develop more robust codes and standards that ensure the safe use of hydrogen for transportation and stationary applications. One of the outputs of this effort is NFPA 2, a harmonized national standard for hydrogen vehicle infrastructure.

Learn more about hydrogen safety, codes, and standards from the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office.

Demonstration Projects

In addition to the technical challenges being addressed through research and development, there are obstacles to successful implementation of hydrogen fueling infrastructure that can be addressed only by integrating the components into complete systems. DOE is developing and testing complete system solutions that validate integrated hydrogen and fuel cell technologies for transportation, infrastructure, and electric generation in a systems context under real-world operating conditions.

Learn more about systems analysis and technology validation from the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory also has information about hydrogen and fuel cell technology validation.