ARTICLE H moves mainstream2 It’s been a long time coming, but today the momentum behind hydrogen as the replacement of fossil fuels is very substantial. It is the last stop on decarbonization of humankind’s energy journey, which has taken us from wood to peat to coal to oil. Amidst widespread recognition of the need to act urgently on NATIONAL CHAMPIONS climate change and the understanding that abundant energy is All these large-scale projects show us that hydrogen is essential to modern life, hydrogen has been acknowledged as moving mainstream. It is easy to see where policy has had a the most appropriate catalyst to allow green electrons to reach powerful influence in that advance. The national leaders in end-users. the 359-project pool are France, Germany, and the European Union, which have adopted an integrated, total-energy-system MOVING MAINSTREAM policy approach in support of hydrogen development. To The Hydrogen Council has tracked 359 hydrogen projects in the east, they include China, Korea, and Japan. In all these the first half of 2021 that have moved beyond the proposal places we find high numbers of large-scale projects backed phase and secured funding, up from 228 at year-end 2020. by investment, and a well-developed national hydrogen Total associated investment in these projects through 2030 is strategy supported by state funding and targets. The best such more than $500 billion, with many major players – including programmes support upstream demand as well as downstream corporations and governments – engaged to deliver them. supply. In addition, we see many more unannounced projects in Most recently the US has joined the leaders. Its Department early development, including large-scale ventures, R&D, and of Energy’s broad-reaching ‘Hydrogen Shot’ is backed by an demonstration projects. Momentum is increasing across all incredibly ambitious target of hydrogen production for a dollar regions, but Europe leads, with more than four fifths of new per kilogram by 2030, and a budgeted $400 million of funding projects located there. for 2022 alone. Such commitments are made alongside the realization that “Total associated investment in we will have no solution to our climate problem without hydrogen. Molecules have been such a critical part of our projects through 2030 is more energy equation since the first cooking fire was lit, and now than $500 billion.” we need a new molecule. But in this very early phase, let’s not call the game too early by overregulating the sector. As we 32