Hydrogen Momentum Continues to Accelerate Globally but Investment Decisions Lagging

Hydrogen momentum continues to accelerate globally but investment decisions are lagging, according to a report by the Hydrogen Council and Mckinsey.

The project funnel is growing across project stages, yet remains skewed toward announcements. Total announced investments until 2030 have increased by 35 per cent in the past eight months -- from $240 billion to $320 billion. All project maturity stages have grown by 30 per cent to 40 per cent yet remain heavily skewed toward early-stage projects, the report said.

Overall, investments in the committed category have accelerated. They grew only 10 per cent from September 2021 to May 2022 and 30 per cent from May 2022 until January 2023.

While Europe leads on announcements, North America leads with committed investments ($10 billion). Europe ($7 billion), the Middle East ($5 billion), and China ($5 billion) follow, with growth in China being the highest at more than 200 per cent.

Despite a positive trend, less than 10 per cent of the $320 billion announced investments through 2030 are real committed capital, the report said.

The industry is maturing in strained supply chains, labour shortage (e.g., EPC), increasing inflation and interest rates, and lack of public support in many markets, all of which may slow deployment.

By 2030, committed capital must increase more than twenty-fold to track a net-zero scenario. For this to result in clean hydrogen deployment, the resources and equipment must be available to ensure deployment of clean hydrogen supply projects, prevent infrastructure bottlenecks, and enable hydrogen-ready end-user plants.

Momentum is strong, and the industry is planning investments into clean hydrogen, yet much more needs to be done. To be on track to net zero in 2050, more than a doubling of announced investments is needed by 2030 -- and these need to be matured and deployed, the report said.