Hydrogen faces investment hurdles
Hydrogen project risks challenge investors
Flow of money into emerging industry faces bottlenecks as investors grapple with uncertainty over regulation and bankability
Concerns over bankability, regulation and project deployment risks are holding back some investors from the hydrogen sector despite its long-term growth potential as a key plank of the energy transition, according to participants in a Transition Economist roundtable on alternative fuels, held in association with PwC. Corporate and institutional investors are treading carefully as they weigh up risks relating to evolving regulation, the need for bankable long-term offtake deals and the possibility that hydrogen production assets could become stranded because of a lack of midstream distribution infrastructure. “Is there a role for government to play the offtaker of last resort?” Anderson
Also in this section
2 December 2025
Oil major cites deteriorating demand and a planning debacle as it abandons one of UK’s largest blue hydrogen projects
1 December 2025
Project at Emden in northwest Germany due online in 2027, but wider ramp-up of clean hydrogen sector in Germany will require overhaul of government policy, company warns
25 November 2025
The northwest African country’s vision of integrating green power, molecules and steel is alive and kicking, and serves as a reminder of hydrogen’s transformative potential
19 November 2025
The creation of ‘lead markets’ to generate hydrogen demand in the EU has potential, but implementation would pose complex challenges for producers and industrial offtakers
