Deloitte | Global Hydrogen Investment

Deloitte  | Hydrogen Investment

Even as electrification leveraging on low-carbon technologies such as renewables clearly appears as an essential solution, it still faces real barriers, particularly when it comes to decarbonizing hard to-abate sectors such as heavy industry and transport. Activities such as high-temperature heating, feedstock supply for chemicals, or heavy-duty freight are indeed hard to fully electrify.

Besides, if wind and solar power continue to expand as prices fall, network stabilization issues can arise with the need to take into account their variability. Clean hydrogen is now clearly recognized as a potential breakthrough technology to overcome these limits.2 Hydrogen is a versatile molecule,3 which can be used directly via fuel cells or for electricity generation, and as feedstock to produce more suitable derivatives—such as ammonia, methanol, or sustainable aviation fuels (SAF)—to specific industrial and transport applications.

sectoral training

Hydrogen supply currently almost entirely relies on natural gas reforming and coal gasification, which are highly carbon intensive (more than 1 Gt of CO2 emissions per year). The real breakthrough is the potential of clean hydrogen to decarbonize current supply and develop new end uses at scale.4 Green hydrogen, produced from renewable electricity via electrolysis, is the most promising and truly sustainable technology. Blue hydrogen, produced via natural gas coupled with carbon capture and storage, can also be labeled “clean” provided it meets stringent methane emissions and carbon capture standards.

Finance for the Green Economy