The roaring thirties, a clean hydrogen acceleration story
How will the clean hydrogen economy develop over the coming years? We identify three phases from now to 2040. The first phase is the commercialization phase, taking us from the present day to around the year 2030.
We consider the 2020s the first hydrogen decade: Unlike the 2010s, when the focus was on commercialization studies, theory, prototype end uses and demonstration projects, the 2020s have already seen the scaling up of clean hydrogen technologies. Governments have strongly ramped up their support and presented hydrogen strategies – Japan as early as 2017, Germany in 2020 and the United States in 2023 – and we see a powerful political drive for increasing energy independence.
This is accompanied by increasing maturity of hydrogen technologies and end-use applications, including in hard-to-abate sectors. The hydrogen ecosystem has gained significant traction and hydrogen has established itself as a strong pillar of decarbonization efforts. The second half of the decade is likely to see further scaling-up in specific regions and the extension of captive supply chains
