Depoe Bay committee to pursue two state grants for hydrogen fuel‑cell backup at city facilities

Members of the city’s resilience committee discussed applying for two state grants to add hydrogen fuel‑cell backup power to City Hall and other municipal facilities and to plan a larger hydrogen‑generation site, members said.

The committee focused on two near‑term steps: pursue a construction grant to install a fuel‑cell and storage container at City Hall and a separate construction request to equip the community center with fuel cells, and submit a planning grant to design a larger, centralized hydrogen‑generation facility that could supply multiple sites. The Oregon Department of Energy (ODEQ) application window was reported to open Aug. 11, and committee members said the state extended the application deadline by about six weeks into October.

Why it matters: committee members said hydrogen fuel cells would provide longer‑term, storable backup power for critical services — including City Hall, the community center and wastewater systems — and that a centralized generation site could scale to serve multiple city facilities and potentially private customers in the future.

What the committee discussed and decided One committee member proposed "submitting two planning grants at the…