PHOENIX — Arizona’s largest universities and energy providers have set out to create more carbon-neutral economic opportunities in the state, starting with plans for a massive regional hydrogen hub.
Leaders from Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, Northern Arizona University, Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project, Tucson Electric Power and Southwest Gas recently announced plans to come together in a new effort aimed at decarbonizing the state’s economy.
This coalition has formed the Center for an Arizona Carbon-Neutral Economy, which will be based at ASU’s Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory on the Tempe Campus. The center will coordinate efforts across the partnering groups plus involve additional stakeholders in the future.
Ellen Stechel, a longtime professor at ASU, is serving as the director of the new center. She has worked in renewable energy and biofuels for decades, including extensive experience at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico.
Stechel said scientists like her have been studying hydrogen and the role it can play in decarbonization for a long time, but there was not a sense of urgency to implement these ideas until recently.
Read more of this story from the Phoenix Business Journal.
