NHA to Work with USFCC on Permitting Education
Karen Hall, National Hydrogen Association


Working to Increase Awareness of Hydrogen Permitting Issues
As a part of a larger coordination effort, the National Hydrogen Association (NHA) and US Fuel Cell Council (USFCC) are working together to increase awareness about issues regarding permitting of hydrogen and fuel cell projects. Both the NHA and USFCC are in a strong position to help individuals and organizations address permitting challenges.

Currently, both organizations are involved in efforts to develop appropriate codes and standards for the longer term, to enable commercialization of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. With a larger number of projects planned, industry is looking for support to facilitate a dialog between project developers and code officials.

The NHA and USFCC would like to eventually work directly with the authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs) to educate the them on hydrogen and fuel cell technologies and pave the way for an easier permitting process.

Codes and Standards Workshops
The US Department of Energy (DOE) is already working with AHJs on hydrogen refuelling stations. A workshop was held on February 1, 2007 in Sacramento on “Facilitating Permitting of Hydrogen Fueling Stations.” Workshop participants shared permitting experiences, discussed lessons learned and other critical issues, identified what is needed to facilitate efficient, timely permitting of hydrogen refueling stations, and developed recommendations to DOE. A second workshop was held at the National Association of State Fire Marshals (NASFM) annual conference on July 10, 2007. Case study footprints were presented to building and fire code officials. The purpose was to educate participants about real-world scenarios, and to allow the hydrogen community to learn the permitting process as well as what tools DOE could develop to facilitate permitting in the future. Both of these workshops were focused on hydrogen fueling stations.

The USFCC is interested in doing something similar with respect to fuel cell technologies, and the NHA is interested in expanding this work to other hydrogen technologies and applications. To begin to prepare for this, the NHA is leading a workshop on the afternoon of Monday October 15, with support from the USFCC, at the 2007 Fuel Cell Seminar in San Antonio, Texas. The agenda is not yet final: a draft is shown below.

Hydrogen Technologies Permitting Workshop
The workshop will seek to bring together project developers, managers, technical personnel, and other stakeholders to:

• Understand what permitting officials expect from us
• Share permitting experiences
• Discuss lessons learned
• Discuss the critical issues
• Identify what is needed to facilitate efficient, timely permitting of projects
• Build on the Federal effort to work with permitting officials to aid permitting of hydrogen refueling stations to include other hydrogen and fuel cell technologies and applications

Draft Agenda
(as of August 10, 2007)

• Permitting Workshop Flyer (45Kb PDF)
  

Your Help is Needed
We need your help in order to be most responsive to industry needs. If you have stories to share about your permitting experiences, or lessons learned for the installation of hydrogen or fuel cell technologies, please consider speaking on the appropriate panel. Panellists avoid the modest registration fee charged by the Fuel Cell Seminar organisers for the workshop. If you are interested in speaking on the panel, please contact Karen Hall at the NHA at hallk@hydrogenassociation.org.

Also, we are interested in inviting a couple of key AHJs to the meeting, to exchange information about facilitating future installations. We would like to determine the top five cities where new installations are planned. If you are planning an installation in the next three years in a new location, please send us the location, and we will send an invitation to the appropriate AHJ in that area.

To register for this workshop, or the Fuel Cell Seminar itself, please visit www.fuelcellseminar.com. The workshop is one of four Educational Programs listed on the registration form.