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“Does hydrogen ever fully replace gasoline, diesel and natural gas? It’ll play its part in replacing those, without a doubt,” said Edwards of Air Liquide. “You’ll see it as a transportation fuel, as a home fuel, as an industrial fuel. You’ll see it in all of these places over time and 50 years from now, I think it will be very common across all those sectors.”

State Sen. Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, is carrying a bill that aims to jump-start the movement to green hydrogen by requiring state agencies to factor the fuel into their climate plans. “Solar is great, but solar is only produced when the sun is shining,” Skinner said. “In a perfect world, hydrogen is one of the absolute best fuels. Many of our other carbon-free energy sources have some limitations that hydrogen does not have.”

As of early 2021, over 30 countries have released hydrogen roadmaps and governments worldwide have committed public funding in support of decarbonisation through hydrogen technologies. No less than 228 large-scale projects have been announced along the value chain, with 85% located in Europe, Asia, and Australia. These include large-scale industrial usage, transport applications, integrated hydrogen economy, infrastructure, and giga-scale production projects. If all announced projects come to fruition, total investments will reach more than $300 billion in spending through 2030. Of this investment $80 billion can currently be considered “mature” – meaning that these projects are in the planning stage, have passed a final investment decision (FID), or are under construction, already commissioned, or operational. Anticipating continued growth in scale, the report confirms that – from a total cost of ownership (TCO) perspective – hydrogen can become the most competitive low-carbon solution in more than 20 applications by 2030, including long haul trucking, shipping and steel. Two factors will be critical in achieving this result: first, it is essential that governments sustain their commitments to deep decarbonisation, backed by financial support, regulation and clear hydrogen strategies and targets, and translate these into long-term regulatory frameworks. Second, deployment approaches must target key “unlocks” such as reducing the cost of hydrogen production and distribution that will have the most significant impact on the rest of the industry.

“If you think of hydrogen as an industry, which we’re going to start to think about very soon, then we are one of the largest players not only in the U.S. but also one of the largest global players,” Perlman said.

“The trajectory of the green hydrogen market will be determined by the amount of policy support its early years and the amount of corporate commitments that are made to invest in this technology. And both of those things are moving much faster than expected,” Gallagher said.

The recommendations include: Tripling federal funding for clean energy innovation over the next five years Fund the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy at $1 billion per year Establish a “New Energy Challenge Program” to build large-scale pilot projects Create an independent national “Energy Strategy Board” Expand centers of excellence with strong domestic expertise

The Sea Change is owned by SWITCH Maritime, a North American impact investment company working to create America’s first fleet of zero emission marine vessels. This project is also partially funded by a $3 million grant from the California Air Resources Board, administered by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, that comes from the California Climate Investments initiative. The Sea Change is in the final phases of construction and set to begin sea trials this year.

Large hydrogen projects identified to lay the ground for industrial scale electrolyzer systems, one of these opportunities is the Air Liquide-H2V Normandy project in France with a capacity of 200MW

However, lack of systemic policy support for hydrogen risks to derail these efforts. While Europe and East Asia have committed to investing hundreds of billions of dollars into hydrogen solutions, the U.S. is the only major market without a national hydrogen strategy. A comprehensive approach is critical because it provides a much-needed framework to enable fast, large-scale adoption.