Reshaping the energy landscape: green hydrogen as the emerging alternative

Just a few years ago, green hydrogen was widely promoted as a cornerstone of the energy transition. Governments launched ambitious strategies, investors backed large-scale projects and industries explored new pathways to decarbonization.

Today, the reality is more complex. While the long-term potential of green hydrogen remains significant, the sector faces a critical challenge: translating ambition into commercially viable projects. Rising costs, evolving regulations and slower-than-expected market development have led many companies to reassess timelines and investment plans. Yet these challenges do not diminish hydrogen's strategic importance. Rather, they are helping the industry focus on where hydrogen can deliver the greatest impact and how the underlying technologies can become more efficient, durable and cost-effective.

Hydrogen has several distinct advantages that make it well suited to support decarbonization initiatives across multiple sectors. It can be used to store excess renewable electricity, power zero-emission fuel cells, generate electricity, produce carbon neutral fuel and thus replace fossil fuels in industrial processes. It also has the potential to address one of the most difficult challenges in the energy transition: reducing emissions from hard-to-abate sectors such as heavy transport and industrial manufacturing.

Hydrogen is classified by its method of production:

Grey hydrogen is produced from natural gas using steam methane reforming, a process that emits significant quantities of CO₂. Blue hydrogen is generated using the same method as grey hydrogen but incorporates carbon capture and storage (CCS) to reduce net emissions. Green hydrogen is produced via electrolysis using electricity generated from renewable sources (e.g., solar or wind), resulting in zero emissions. It is the cleanest and most sustainable form of hydrogen, and the long-term focus to reach carbon neutrality. As economies continue to shift away from fossil fuels, green hydrogen remains a critical pathway for decarbonizing sectors where direct electrification is difficult, although widespread adoption will depend on continued improvements in cost competitiveness and infrastructure availablility.

Hydrogen’s broad applicability makes it uniquely positioned to play a central role in the new energy landscape. Its use cases span four main areas:

1. Transportation

Hydrogen fuel cells can complement battery-electric solutions in transport applications that require long range, fast refueling or high utilization rates, including certain heavy-duty and industrial mobility segments.

2. Power generation

Hydrogen can be combusted in turbines to generate electricity or used in stationary fuel cells for decentralized power applications. As renewable penetration increases, hydrogen can provide long-duratoin and seasonal energy storage, helping maintain grid reliability as the share of variable renewable power increases.

3. Energy storage

One of hydrogen’s most strategic advantages lies in its ability to act as a seasonal energy storage medium. Excess renewable energy generated during periods of low demand can be converted into hydrogen and stored for use during peak periods, helping to address the volatility of renewables.

4. Industrial decarbonization

Industries such as steel production, ammonia synthesis, and methanol manufacturing are major emitters of CO₂. Green hydrogen can serve as a clean feedstock, replacing carbon-intensive fuels and chemical inputs in these foundational industrial processes.

The global hydrogen market was valued at $204.5 billion in 2024, and current projections suggest a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.2% through 2034. This growth is driven by increased demand for clean alternatives, evolving policy landscapes, and technological advancements.

Source: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/hydrogen-market

Several regions are actively shaping the future of the hydrogen economy:

• Europe: Ambitious decarbonization targets and regulatory mechanisms such as the EU Green Deal are pushing hydrogen innovation and infrastructure deployment across member states.

• Asia-Pacific: Countries such as Japan and South Korea have national hydrogen strategies focused on scaling both supply and demand.

• North America: Canada is investing in regional hydrogen hubs and clean hydrogen tax incentives.

• China: China is rapidly expanding electrolyzer manufacturing capacity and is emerging as a major supplier of cost-effective hydrogen technologies.

Persistent Challenges in Scaling Green Hydrogen

Despite the compelling potential of hydrogen, several significant barriers continue to hinder its widespread deployment:

1. High production costs

Green hydrogen remains costly to produce due to the price of renewable electricity and the capital intensity of electrolysis. In many regions, it is still significantly more expensive than hydrogen produced from fossil fuels.

2. Technological barriers

While electrolyzer technology is well established, large-scale deployment is still in an early phase of industrialization and faces challenges related to manufacturing scale, supply chains and cost reduction.

3. Infrastructure deficiencies

The production, storage, and distribution of green hydrogen often requires specialized equipment and infrastructure. In most markets, pipelines, refueling stations, and storage terminals are underdeveloped, making it difficult to create reliable supply chains at scale. However, many countries are exploring ways to repurpose existing natural gas pipelines for hydrogen distribution, either through blending or full conversion.

4. Regulatory fragmentation

Regulatory frameworks continue to evolve across regions, creating uncertainty for developers and investors. Shifting policy priorities, changing subsidy programs and differing certification requirements can slow investment decisions and delay project development.

To unlock hydrogen’s full potential, governments, industry, and the research community must work together to address these challenges:

Drive cost reductions through innovation

Ongoing advancements in electrolyzer technology, improvements in total cost of ownership, and economies of scale can significantly reduce the production cost of green hydrogen.

Invest in infrastructure development

Governments and private investors must fund the construction of hydrogen hubs, transport pipelines, and refueling networks to enable market accessibility and demand growth. Alternatively, hydrogen can be converted into ammonia or synthetic fuels, allowing the use of today’s existing infrastructure for storage, transport, and end-use applications.

Establish stable and harmonized regulatory frameworks

Clear, long-term policy commitments, subsidy schemes (such as the UK’s low-carbon hydrogen subsidy), and standards harmonization will provide the market certainty required to unlock investment.

Promote public-private partnerships

Partnerships between governments, utilities, technology providers, and industrial users are crucial to de-risk large-scale hydrogen projects and accelerate commercialization.

Bekaert is contributing to the future of green hydrogen as a leading supplier of Porous Transport Layers (PTL), which are essential components in water electrolyzers. In collaboration with Toshiba, Bekaert is also commercializing advanced Membrane Electrode Assemblies (MEA) that reduce iridium usage by up to 90%, significantly lowering costs and enhancing the scalability of green hydrogen. 

With a legacy of expertise in materials science, steel transformation, and coating technologies, Bekaert is uniquely positioned to help scale the hydrogen economy. The company’s contributions are not limited to PTLs. Bekaert also develops critical components for offshore wind mooring systems and next-generation electrical transmission networks, further supporting the broader energy transition.

By 2034, the hydrogen market is expected to exceed $603.3 billion in value. Green hydrogen is expected to play an important role in achieving net-zero ambitions, particularly in sectors where alternative decarbonization pathways remain limited.

Bekaert envisions a future where clean hydrogen is integrated seamlessly into the global energy ecosystem. As a trusted partner with a proven track record, Bekaert is a market leader in steel wire transformation and coating technologies and applications beyond steel to create new solutions, such as Currento, to support the necessary energy transition that will shape the next generation of the energy infrastructure. 

Source: https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/hydrogen-market

The future of green hydrogen depends on collective action. When policymakers create enabling frameworks, developers and infrastructure providers scale with purpose, investors fuel innovation, and industry leaders join forces, real transformation happens. Together, we can create a better tomorrow.