Monterey R. Gardiner Speaker at Green Hydrogen East Coast Summit

Monterey R. Gardiner

Chief Engineer Hydrogen Strategy & Partnerships National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)

Monterey R. Gardiner, Ph. D. is a Chief Engineer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory driving forward Hydrogen Strategy and Business Development since 2023. He recently handed off his role as vice chair of the SAE AE-5CH Hydrogen Airport Committee. He has spent the last three years with hydrogen (H2) startup companies in transportation (trucking and aviation) focused on program development for cryogenic H2 tanks and fuel cell systems ranging in power from 150 kW to 2 MW. Through his accomplishments in business risk reduction and technology scouting he prioritized company investments in research, development, and demonstration (RDD) to validate hydrogen (H2) storage/ fuel cell (FC), with fueling technologies required to reach a sustainable and profitable business. He has over 20 years of experience across key automotive and government organizations not including his time earning a Ph.D. at UC Davis 2004 designing, building, & validating a cryogenic H2 storage vessel: 4 year- Managed operations of FC fleet deployments in CA and trained first responders. 7 year- U.S. Dept. of Energy’s H2FC Technologies Office, Mansfield Fellow Group 16. 7 year- BMW Group (Germany, Japan, U.S.)- Technology scouting, & homologation. 3.5 year- Supporting three startups in hydrogen transportation (trucking & aviation). In each organization and geographic location his efforts were focused on driving integration of renewable energy & advancing H2FC in the areas of RDD & supporting policies to reduce costs. His 5+ years working abroad in Japan, Germany, and Canada, as well as 2 years of manufacturing experience provide a breadth of experience giving him key insights into supply chain development and “design for manufacturing” to enable new hydrogen mobility from trucks to aviation. Safe, robust H2 trucks and H2FCs in aviation will unlock “@scale” low to zero carbon hydrogen and accelerate economy-wide greenhouse gas reductions as the nation is marshaling resources at an unprecedented level of effort towards zero carbon emissions.

<< Back