The sheer scale of the coming wave of green and blue hydrogen projects has been highlighted by analyst Rystad Energy, which says that the provision of services around H2 supply — ie, everything that does not involve buying and selling the clean gas — will be a $400bn industry over the next 15 years.
Transport and infrastructure is forecast to be worth $130bn between now and 2035, with facility construction spending of $120bn and equipment costs of $70bn. Engineering will amount to $25bn with operations and maintenance also adding up to $25bn.
Other associated segments — including drilling to create large-scale underground hydrogen storage facilities in salt caverns, aquifers or depleted oil & gas fields — will each be worth less than $10bn.
The figures do not differentiate between green hydrogen derived from electrolysis powered by renewable energy and blue H2 produced from fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage (CCS), although Rystad points out that it expects to see about 30GW of green hydrogen capacity operational by 2035 and that blue H2 initiatives “are also growing in popularity, with several mega-projects being discussed at present”. CCS costs are not included in the hydrogen figures.
“At present, hydrogen projects, especially green hydrogen, are centered in Australia and Europe. In Asia, meanwhile, Japan and Korea are looking into importing hydrogen and developing international supply chains around the gas, especially within transportation,” said Audun Martinsen, Rystad’s head of energy service research. “Hydrogen is also expected to feature in China’s forthcoming five-year energy plan, as well as in the plans presented by provincial authorities in the country.”
