Joining us in California is Michael Hoban, General Manager at Chevron New Energies, so we caught up with him ahead of the event to find out more about what we can expect from his presentation.

H2 View (H2V): Thank you for taking the time to talk to H2 View today. Firstly, for readers who may not be familiar with Chevron, can you tell us more about the company and how it got into the hydrogen space? 

Michael Hobon (MH): At Chevron, we believe the future of energy is lower carbon, and we work to provide the energy that enables human progress around the world. When it comes to the energy transition, we take a pragmatic, but optimistic view, and are focused on are leveraging our capabilities, assets, and customer relationships to deliver energy (solutions) to a growing world.

Our approach to achieving this is two-fold: we are working to lower the carbon intensity of our own assets and operations and are working to create new businesses dedicated to lower carbon solutions, in fact, we established a new business line, Chevron New Energies, in 2021 to focus directly on this.

Chevron has not only demonstrated our lower carbon commitment financially, $10bn through 2028, but by the fact that we’ve established an entire new business line in Chevron New Energies and we’re moving quickly to advance projects.

Hydrogen will play a critical role in this energy transition. We hope to grow our hydrogen production to 150,000 tonnes per year by 2030 to supply industrial, power and heavy-duty transport customers, and feel we’re well positioned to participate across the value chain. 

H2V: Michael, you’re speaking at H2 View’s North American Hydrogen Summit 2022 in the Fuelling the Mobility Market session. Can you give us a tease of what you’ll be discussing here?

MH: Our hydrogen strategy is focused on growing new businesses targeting transportation, power generation and harder-to-abate sectors where Chevron can build competitive advantages over time.

We are seeking to facilitate demand through partnerships with automakers and commercial truck fleet operators, along with investment in hydrogen refuelling infrastructure.

We believe mobility presents a significant growth opportunity for hydrogen as we continue to work toward our lower carbon goals and the increased use of hydrogen will be critical to achieving the Net Zero ambitions of the Paris Agreement. 

H2V: Can you tell us more about Chevron’s role in the North American hydrogen mobility market and some exciting projects the company is currently working on? 

MH: We see this is as a big opportunity for Chevron’s lower carbon business, particularly with heavy duty transportation, which is difficult to decarbonise. We will continue to partner across the hydrogen value chain with Toyota, Cummins, Caterpillar, and others to demonstrate hydrogen’s mobility potential.

We announced a partnership earlier this year with Iwatani to install hydrogen fueling stations. And we continue to work with other partners to identify opportunities. It’s still early in the hydrogen mobility market, but we expect to have a number of projects to announce in the near future.

Read more:  Chevron, Iwatani to develop 30 hydrogen stations in Califonia by 2026 

H2V: What do you think will be the next big step for the hydrogen mobility sector?

MH: We believe hydrogen in general will continue to be a key lower carbon source of energy, and that some of that demand will come from the mobility sector, especially in the near term.

We have to continue focusing on developing technologies at scale and on innovation. We also should work collaboratively with governments and regulators to ensure we are enabling the right developmental landscape and not picking winners and losers.

Beyond just developing technology to scale within mobility, we need continued buy-in on the important role hydrogen will play more broadly in industrial and power segments. In many ways, the mobility market will lay the ground work by advancing the technology, developing the supply chains, and lowering the cost.

H2V: Finally, what are you most looking forward to when we do touch down in San Francisco in July?

MH: After several years of virtual meetings, it’s nice to be in person to have these discussions and conversations. Hydrogen is critical to our lower carbon ambitions and to make meaningful strides, we must focus on partnership, innovation and policy. These opportunities allow us to come together to address these challenges.