By Tina Casey, Clean Technica.

Fans of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles in the US got a pleasant surprise yesterday, when the Department of Energy announced that a company called Dioxide Materials is getting a slice of the agency’s new $125 million round of funding for “transformational” energy projects. Among its areas of expertise, Dioxide Materials is developing a low cost system that uses renewable energy to produce hydrogen fuel from water.

The new round of $125 million in funding for 41 clean energy projects comes through the Energy Department’s ARPA-E division, known to CleanTechnica readers for its work in the exploding diaper market and many other cutting edge energy adventures.

We’re zeroing in on the $2 million award to Dioxide Materials for a couple of reasons, mainly because we’re very interested in the emergingpower-to-gas field (the gas being hydrogen gas), and partly because among all 41 awardees, the Energy Department highlighted only seven in its announcement, and Dioxide Materials is the one selected to lead off the agency’s press release.