Hydrogen Initiative is a cross-campus effort of the Precourt Institute for Energy.

Hydrogen Initiative

Policy and Economics

Primary Research Goals:

  • Develop policy recommendations to influence the growth of the H2 economy
  • Find emerging applications where H2 has a strong business case
  • Understand the environmental consequences of switching to Hydrogen

To date, hydrogen adoption has been strongly driven by policy incentives such as the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credit in California and the subsidy framework in Europe. Stanford researchers are studying the policy drivers that encourage the expansion of the hydrogen market and the business models which have a strong value proposition for hydrogen.

Faculty & Researchers | Areas of Interest | Related Publications

Faculty & Researchers

  • Frank Wolak

    Frank Wolak

    Holbrook Working Professor of Price Theory and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute, at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and at the Precourt Institute for Energy

Areas of Interest

Hydrogen Value Chain Analysis

Stephen Comello Systems analysis of hydrogen as a decarbonization pathway.

Gireesh Shrimali Hydrogen policy strategies for the US as well as India to accelerate the development of a hydrogen economy

Grid Storage

​Frank Wolak Economics of Hydrogen in energy markets and policy (power to gas)

Stefan Reichelstein Value proposition of vertically integrated power to gas systems

Developing business cases for Blue Hydrogen (CH4) + CCS (e.g., 45Q + LCFS in refineries and ethanol plants)

Sally Benson and Mark Zoback Assessing the potential for Blue Hydrogen with CCS in California

Techno-economics of H2 from curtailed renewables

Sally Benson Hydrogen as a fuel switching option in California

Related Publications

  • Optimization-based technoeconomic analysis of molten-media methane pyrolysis for reducing industrial sector CO(2)emissions SUSTAINABLE ENERGY & FUEL. SVon Wald, G. A., Masnadi, M. S., Upham, D., Brandt, A. R.2020; 4 (9): 4598–4613. View details for DOI 10.1039/d0se00427h
  • Global Carbon Budget 2020 EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE DATA Friedlingstein, P., O'Sullivan, M., Jones, M. W., Andrew, R. M., Hauck, J., Olsen, A., Peters, G. P., Peters, W., Pongratz, J., Sitch, S., Le Quere, C., Canadell, J. G., Ciais, P., Jackson, R. B., Alin, S., Aragao, L. C., Arneth, A., Arora, V., Bates, N. R., Becker, M., Benoit-Cattin, A., Bittig, H. C., Bopp, L., Bultan, S., Chandra, N., Chevallier, F., Chini, L. P., Evans, W., Florentie, L., Forster, P. M., Gasser, T., Gehlen, M., Gilfillan, D., Gkritzalis, T., Gregor, L., Gruber, N., Harris, I., Hartung, K., Haverd, V., Houghton, R. A., Ilyina, T., Jain, A. K., Joetzjer, E., Kadono, K., Kato, E., Kitidis, V., Korsbakken, J., Landschutzer, P., Lefevre, N., Lenton, A., Lienert, S., Liu, Z., Lombardozzi, D., Marland, G., Metzl, N., Munro, D. R., Nabel, J. S., Nakaoka, S., Niwa, Y., O'Brien, K., Ono, T., Palmer, P. I., Pierrot, D., Poulter, B., Resplandy, L., Robertson, E., Rodenbeck, C., Schwinger, J., Seferian, R., Skjelvan, I., Smith, A. P., Sutton, A. J., Tanhua, T., Tans, P. P., Tian, H., Tilbrook, B., Van der Werf, G., Vuichard, N., Walker, A. P., Wanninkhof, R., Watson, A. J., Willis, D., Wiltshire, A. J., Yuan, W., Yue, X., Zaehle, S.All Authors2020; 12 (4): 3269–3340
  • Carbon dioxide emissions continue to grow amidst slowly emerging climate policies Nature Climate Change Peters, G. P., Andrew, R. M., Canadell, J. G., Friedlingstein, P., Jackson, R. B., Korsbakken , J., Le Quéré , C., Peregon, A.2020; 10 (3-6). View details for DOI 10.1038/s41558-019-0659-6
  • Transitioning to Clean Energy Transportation Services: Life-Cycle Cost Analysis for Vehicle Fleets. Stephen D. Comello, Gunther Glenk, Stefan J. Reichelstein. Applied Energy. March 2021 Vol. 285
  • The Role of Efficient Pricing in Enabling a Low-Carbon Electricity Sector ECONOMICS OF ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY Wolak, F. A.2019; 8 (2): 49–72. View details for DOI 10.5547/2160-5890.8.2.fwol