As many as 680 large-scale hydrogen projects have been announced globally, representing an investment of USD 240 billion (EUR 242.3bn) until 2030, according to a report released this week by the Hydrogen Council, a global CEO-led initiative.
The figure represents a 50% jump since November 2021.
The report, prepared in partnership with McKinsey & Company, however, says that deployments are growing at a much slower rate. Only USD 22 billion, around 10% of the proposals, have reached final investment decision (FID) or are under construction or operational, which is an increase by USD 2 billion over the last half year.
“With the growing concerns around energy security, it is clear our economies need hydrogen. But on-the-ground deployment is not moving fast enough and needs to accelerate to realise the benefits of hydrogen,” said Yoshinori Kanehana, chairman of Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd and co-chair of the Hydrogen Council.
The report calls for joint action by the public and private sectors to bring projects to FIDs. Governments should enable demand visibility, roll out funding support and ensure international coordination, while industry needs to scale up supply chain capability and capacity, progress projects towards FID and develop infrastructure for cross-border trade.
At the same time, a tripling of investment in hydrogen by 2030, to USD 700 billion, will be needed to make the most of hydrogen’s role in meeting the 2050 net zero target.
The report also says that Europe accounts for more than 30% of proposed hydrogen investment globally but implementation is led by other regions -- North America is home to 80% of operational global low-carbon hydrogen production capacity, while China has outstripped Europe in electrolysis, having 200 MW in operation, compared to 170 MW in Europe. More than half of the 11 GW of global fuel cell manufacturing capacity, meanwhile, is concentrated in South Korea and Japan.
In the report, “large-scale” refers to projects larger than 1 MW of electrolysis or equivalent.
(USD 1 = EUR 1.009)
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Hydrogen molecule. Source: Mainspring Energy.
