Tag: hydrogen

Hydrogen: Not Market Ready

“But we all know there is no such thing as a free lunch. Hydrogen problems are real. It is so light it is difficult, meaning expensive, to store. That’s a problem for transportation uses.”

From Master Resource

By Kennedy Maize

“But we all know there is no such thing as a free lunch. Hydrogen problems are real. It is so light it is difficult, meaning expensive, to store. That’s a problem for transportation uses.”

Hydrogen, 1H, the primary and most common element in the universe, consists of one proton, one electron, and no neutrons. It’s in first place on the periodic chart of the elements. In common, gaseous form, H2, it is colorless, odorless, and highly combustible. It is the fuel of the sun.

For many years, some energy mavens have touted hydrogen, an energy carrier, as the perfect fuel form for a greener earth. When combusted in pure oxygen, it produces only water and a lot of energy. When burned in air, it emits only small amounts of oxides of nitrogen. As a fuel, it is carbon free.

In air, the combustion temperature is around 2,379°C (4,314°F). A natural gas flame hits around 1,950°C. The intense heat is one reason hydrogen is valuable in industrial applications like welding and cutting metals.

Challenges

Hydrogen is an ideal element for fuel cells, which use an electrochemical process to release the electrons, producing an electric current. But we all know there is no such thing as a free lunch. Hydrogen problems are real. It is so light it is difficult, meaning expensive, to store. That’s a problem for transportation uses.

Hydrogen is not widely available naturally, generally requiring it to be produced by breaking down more available sources such as methane (CH4) in natural gas, or from water (H2O). That introduces a host of expensive problems.

Despite the perceived advantages of elemental hydrogen in an energy economy, its tale is a matter of great expectations often crashing against rocky realizations, perhaps beginning with the May 1937 explosion of the German commercial dirigible Hindenburg over Lakehurst, N.J., killing 36 passengers and crew.

Commercial Setback

The quest to commercialize hydrogen, government-enabled, [1] was set back earlier this summer. Pennsylvania-based Air Products (NYSE:APD), a major industrial gases company, announced it was pulling the plug on its long-troubled Louisiana Clean Energy Project, taking a pre-tax financial hit of up to $2.9 billion.

The project in Ascension Parish aimed at producing “blue” hydrogen and “blue” ammonia, meaning gases produced from breaking down natural gas while capturing and storing the associated carbon dioxide. That distinguishes it from “green” hydrogen, produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.

The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis wrote that the Louisiana project was founded when the “hype around blue hydrogen exploded in 2022, with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and the allocation of $7 billion in funding to regional Hydrogen Hubs.” The analysis said, “The decision is a huge win for taxpayers, who could have been on the hook for billions of dollars in subsidies, as well as Louisiana communities, which would have borne the environmental cost of such a facility.”

The project initially pencilled out as profitable based on assumptions about the value of carbon capture and storage tax credits from the Biden administration that were speculative at best and, most likely, hallucinatory. IEEFA commented, “By 2025, cheap natural gas and generous production subsidies were no longer enough to get a project to move ahead.”

Pick Your Type

Hydrogen is colorful, based on how it’s obtained. It’s time to introduce the hydrogen color chart.

Hydrogen boosters have most recently touted green and blue hydrogen, although green has largely vanished as an acceptable hue in the Trump administration, unless we are talking about cash. There is no “gold” hydrogen, which might merit some attention at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Prototype Examples

There are successful uses of hydrogen in transportation. Hydrogen Insight online magazine reports that a hydrogen-fueled bus in Spain “with the longest ever range — more than 1,000km on a single tank — has been in operation on various routes in and around the Spanish capital, Madrid, since June, the manufacturer has announced.”

The venerable Spanish bus and coach maker Irizar built the vehicle that is in Madrid service. According to the company, the Madrid coach “incorporates a 190-kW Bosch hydrogen fuel cell and an electric propulsion system designed for medium- and long-distance operations, enabling refueling times of around 10–15 minutes and a range exceeding 1,000 km. It maintains performance and commercial attributes equivalent to those of diesel vehicles.”

Spain is a hotbed of hydrogen energy research and development. According to the fuel cell-oriented web publication FCW, researchers from València’s Institute of Chemical Technology (ITQ) and the Institute of Information and Communication Technologies (ITACA) are working on “materials that improve the production of hydrogen from water from microwave radiation,” producing green hydrogen.

White Hydrogen Supply?

There are also hints that naturally-occurring hydrogen may be more plentiful than once thought. Recent drilling in Canada’s Ontario province by University of Toronto and University of Ottawa scientists found promising amounts of hydrogen. Science Daily reports the geologists “studied the Canadian Shield, a vast region of some of the oldest rock formations on the planet. For the first time, they directly measured hydrogen escaping from these billion-year-old rocks, tracked how it builds up over time, and mapped where the gas is concentrated.

“The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could help determine whether naturally occurring, or ‘white,’ hydrogen can become a practical and economical energy source.”

In January, 2025, the U.S. Geological Survey wrote:

Although naturally occurring hydrogen has been encountered in a wide variety of subsurface environments, millions of oil and gas wells have failed to detect more than trace concentrations of hydrogen…. This led many geoscientists to conclude that economic accumulations of hydrogen in the subsurface are non-existent… It is clear now that geoscientists were premature in concluding that economic accumulations of natural hydrogen could not exist in the subsurface.

Conclusion

Could the promise of enormous, clean energy from hydrogen become real? Not now; special government favor is keeping it in play. Someday? Perhaps. Hydrogen in its different colors is technologically feasible and thus a backstop energy for the future.

[1] Seven regional H2Hubs, created in response to the federal government’s $7 billion investment, are

  • ARCHES: California Hydrogen Hub focused on renewable energy and heavy-duty mobility.
  • ARCH2: Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub spanning West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
  • HyVelocity H2Hub: Gulf Coast hub leveraging legacy infrastructure in Texas.
  • MACH2: Mid-Atlantic Clean Hydrogen Hub across Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey.
  • MachH2: Midwest Alliance for Clean Hydrogen in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan.
  • PNW H2: Pacific Northwest hub in Washington, Oregon, and Montana.
  • Heartland Hydrogen Hub: Spanning Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota

Recent setbacks with the above in-process projects all but ensure that the original goal of 76 “green” hydrogen projects, part of the Biden-era goal of Net Zero by 2050, will not be reached.

Kennedy Maize is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist who has covered energy and environmental topics for nearly a half-century.  This post, edited here, originally appeared at The Quad Report. Maize’s previous reposts at MasterResource are here.

Alice in Hydrogen Land

At a shopping mall or amusement park one can see vendors selling balloons filled with Helium. Kids love them and dance around trailing their balloons, which float above them. From time to time some kid accidentally lets go and you see the balloon soaring high into the sky, to the delight of many watching, but to the heartbreak of the kid. The balloon soars up into the sky because it is filled with Helium, and Helium is a gas much lighter than the Oxygen and Nitrogen which make up most of the atmosphere.

From CFACT

By Kelvin Kemm

At a shopping mall or amusement park one can see vendors selling balloons filled with Helium. Kids love them and dance around trailing their balloons, which float above them. From time to time some kid accidentally lets go and you see the balloon soaring high into the sky, to the delight of many watching, but to the heartbreak of the kid. The balloon soars up into the sky because it is filled with Helium, and Helium is a gas much lighter than the Oxygen and Nitrogen which make up most of the atmosphere.

Atoms are made-up of a nucleus, and electrons which orbit around the nuclei, Each nucleus is composed of neutrons and protons. The mass of each atom is essentially the mass of the total number of neutrons and protons in a nucleus. The scientifically quoted masses are not whole numbers because the atoms of a single element have slight variations in the number of neutrons. These variations are called isotopes. So, the quoted mass of Oxygen, for example, is 15.999 which is not a round number. But for now, I will just use the closest round number, so Oxygen will be 16. These numbers are measured in Atomic Mass Units, so Oxygen is 16 amu. Nitrogen is 14, and Helium is 4. As you can see, the Helium is way lighter than Oxygen or Nitrogen, and that is why a Helium balloon shoots up into the sky so fast when the kid lets go. But there is an additional factor, and that is that in nature the atoms exist as molecules. Both the Oxygen and Nitrogen molecules consist of two atoms each, but the Helium molecule is only one atom. So, the molecular masses in the air are actually; Oxygen 32, Nitrogen 28, and Helium is still 4.

Golf balls in a fishing net

But now a universal disappointment for kids. The kid has fun with the balloon all day, and then usually ties it to a chair so that he can play with it again in the morning. But when he comes to look at it in the morning it is nearly flat and typically lying on the floor. This disappointing sight then generates much discussion as to what went wrong during the night. The answer is quite simple. The Helium atom is not only light in mass, but is also very small in comparison to the Oxygen and Nitrogen atoms. It is like comparing a soccer ball and a golf ball, if you are looking at Oxygen and Helium. In fact, two soccer balls glued together, because the Oxygen has to exist as a 2-atom molecule. Imagine filling a fishing net with pairs of soccer balls glued together. You can easily carry a whole load of double soccer balls in a fishing net with no problem. But you can’t fill the fishing net with a load of golf balls, because they will all fall through the net holes. In the case of a balloon the wall of the balloon is not solid, it is in effect a net. The spaces between the big molecules which make up the balloon are small enough that Oxygen and Nitrogen can’t get through, but Helium can. So what actually happens during the night, is that the Helium just leaks out through the wall of the balloon, much to the disappointment of the child.

These difference in sizes of the molecules also present problems in industry. Pipelines which have joints, valves, and all sorts of steps in a production process will readily contain Oxygen or Nitrogen, but can very easily leak Helium. So, making a Helium pipeline is far more difficult than making an Oxygen pipeline.

Hydrogen heartache

But now let us turn our attention to Hydrogen. The atomic mass of Hydrogen is 1, and yes, in nature, Hydrogen exists as a 2-atom molecule, which means that its molecular mass is 2. So, Hydrogen comes out way smaller even than Helium. So now just imagine the industrial challenges of moving Hydrogen around and trying to store it. If Helium leaks out of a pipeline joint which has not been tightened correctly it is a nuisance because it costs the production company money for lost Helium. But if Hydrogen leaks out, it’s even worse because Hydrogen can explode or burn.

For a while now there has been much hoopla in the media about Hydrogen as a fuel, and how wonderful it is. Hydrogen has been known for centuries, so how come nobody came up with this idea long before this? Think about that. This whole Hydrogen thing came about as a result of the politically induced introduction of solar and wind energy all over the place. The big downside of solar and wind is that they are highly intermittent and therefore unreliable. In the case of solar, you quite likely get excess over lunch time but then nothing as the Sun goes down. This was clearly a serious limitation of solar power. So in Germany, under political inducement, the scientists came up with the idea of taking the surplus solar at lunchtime and storing it so that you could use it as dinner-time approaches.

The one method of storage proposed was to take the surplus solar and put it through a water electrolyzer which breaks the H2O water molecule into Hydrogen and Oxygen. You then store the Hydrogen until later in the day and then burn it to recreate the excess electricity collected at lunchtime. Sounds great, but that’s an incredibly complex route. Firstly, there’s a law of physics that says that every time you change energy from one type to another, you lose some of it. So, each one of those changes loses energy and therefore pushes up the price of the remaining energy.

As we have already found out, storing and transporting Hydrogen is extremely difficult, requiring much higher specifications than storing or moving Oxygen or Nitrogen. The costs of installing a Hydrogen transport and storage system are way higher than for Oxygen or Nitrogen.

But it gets a lot worse.

Ice blocks are hot in comparison

To store even a moderate amount of Hydrogen energy requires a large volume. To make storage practical, Hydrogen must either be compressed to very high pressures, or cooled to extremely low temperatures until it becomes a liquid.

Both methods require expensive equipment. High-pressure tanks must be specially designed to very high specs.

Liquid Hydrogen requires temperatures close to minus 2530 Celsius, and needs advanced insulation. Transporting Hydrogen is also clearly very difficult.

Hydrogen fuel is absolutely not a fantastic new scientific development. It was known a couple of centuries ago. The reason why people didn’t use it in the past was because of all the practical difficulties of industrialising and retailing Hydrogen gas. It has been brought into the popular media now because of the political need to solve the intermittent nature of wind and solar. Hydrogen is not being developed because it’s a good engineering idea but because of desperation to try and make the financial equations of variable excess solar and wind become a bit more palatable to the consumer. The whole problem is compounded manyfold more when one talks of producing vast volumes of Hydrogen in African countries and then transporting it to Europe.

So when you see excited chats about the glories of Hydrogen in the media, bear in mind that Hydrogen as a fuel was created as a political response to the politically induced problem of the huge variability of solar and wind. Solar and wind were thought up as a response to the political reaction to a perceived fear of global warming and climate change. The Hydrogen issue was never developed by scientists and engineers in response to a genuine engineering requirement.

Wyoming Moves to Pull the Plug on Costly Pronghorn and Sidewinder Wind Projects

Good news for eagles, hawks and other birds of the region.

From Watts Up With That?

Good news for eagles, hawks and other birds of the region.

From Legal Insurrection

Posted by Leslie Eastman 

The last time we looked at the Trump administration’s reversal of wind farm approvals, the Interior Department, led by Secretary Doug Burgum, had just put a deep freeze on the continuing construction of five East Coast wind farms.

These pauses included several projects familiar to our readers:

However, those are not the only projects that have been pushed by green energy industries, eco-activists, and politically motivated bureaucrats. As I have noted in a previous post, Wyoming has been the site of several of these projects.

Now Wyoming’s top land officials have moved to rescind the state wind leases underpinning the Pronghorn H2 and Sidewinder projects, effectively putting both projects on a path toward cancellation.

The State Board of Land Commissioners took a series of 3-2 votes that will begin the process of canceling two controversial eastern Wyoming wind leases that the panel approved last year.

The decision came after extensive and emotional public comment Thursday opposing the leases — one related to the Pronghorn H2 Clean Energy Project in Converse County and one for the Sidewinder Clean Hydrogen Project in Niobrara County.

The State Board of Land Commissioners consists of Gov. Mark Gordon, Auditor Kristi Racines, Treasurer Curt Meier, Secretary of State Chuck Gray and Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder. Gray, Racines and Degenfelder voted in favor of rescinding the leases while Gordon and Meier opposed the motion.

Commissioners supporting the reversal — which still must play out procedurally — cited a December ruling by Eighth Judicial District Court Judge Scott Peasley that invalidated another state land lease for the Pronghorn project. That lease, on a state land parcel south of Glenrock, was unlawful, the judge concluded, because it didn’t expressly prescribe that electricity from the windfarm would be pumped into the grid — a violation of the state’s own rules.

State officials rescind wind leases for Pronghorn and Sidewinder https://t.co/oHqd6BB88M #wyoming #usa #windpower

— Power Plant World (@powerplantworld) February 11, 2026

Pronghorn H2 is a Focus Clean Energy project originally designed as a combined wind‑and‑solar facility powering still-in-development hydrogen production on about 46,000 acres in Converse County. However, after a December 2025 ruling by District Court Judge F. Scott Peasley that vacated the project’s wind lease from the state, citing the fact that wind farms on state leases must provide electricity back to the grid

The developers then nixed the hydrogen production portion and substantially reduced the acreage requirements, and then tried to sell the new plan as an effective means of energy generation in the winter-blasted state.

Focus Clean Energy announced Thursday that its Pronghorn H2 Project footprint has been reduced to about 30% of its original size, from more than 57,000 acres down to about 16,571 acres.

… The company also said it is eliminating the hydrogen production component that had been central to the project’s original vision, which means it no longer needs industrial-scale water supplies.

“Rapidly increasing energy demand means Wyoming needs additional electric generation, and the Pronghorn Project is repositioned to help meet that need,” said Paul Martin, lead developer for the Pronghorn Project. “We anticipate these significant changes will resolve many of the concerns expressed by the community.”

Martin told Cowboy State Daily the decision was driven by market conditions rather than politics.

Sidewinder is a related Focus Clean Energy wind project in neighboring Niobrara County, intended to work in tandem with Pronghorn and originally linked to clean hydrogen production. The developer plans to continue the legal battle.

Meanwhile, Focus Clean Energy, the Colorado-based Pronghorn H2 and Sidewinder developer, says it is confident Wyoming’s top court will reinstate its wind lease.

“We believe we’re very likely to have that overturned at the Supreme Court, and then that just reinstates the lease and we move forward,” the company’s President Paul Martin told WyoFile.

Wyoming’s land commissioners didn’t just hit pause on another overhyped green mega‑scheme; by moving to pause the Pronghorn H2 and Sidewinder leases after emotional local testimony, a damning court ruling, and a last‑minute downsizing sales pitch, they began the process of pulling the plug on projects the public never really wanted and that still couldn’t prove they could reliably or inexpensively power that chilly corner of the country.

Many of the locals will be thrilled by this development.

Good news for eagles, hawks and other birds of the region. https://t.co/697rWJ4zi9 pic.twitter.com/WwTmCB88RI

— Leslie Eastman ☥ (@Mutnodjmet) February 12, 2026

Hydrogen emissions heat up the climate – study shows the risks of the energy transition

A recent study published in Nature (December 2025) by an international team led by researchers from Stanford University and Auburn University provides the first comprehensive global hydrogen budget from 1990–2020. It highlights how rising atmospheric hydrogen levels contribute indirectly to climate warming, posing risks for the expanding hydrogen economy during the energy transition.

An illustration of renewable energy sources, featuring wind turbines, solar panels, and hydrogen storage tanks in a green landscape.

A recent study published in Nature (December 2025) by an international team led by researchers from Stanford University and Auburn University provides the first comprehensive global hydrogen budget from 1990–2020. It highlights how rising atmospheric hydrogen levels contribute indirectly to climate warming, posing risks for the expanding hydrogen economy during the energy transition.

Atmospheric hydrogen concentrations have increased significantly since 1990, largely due to human activities. The primary driver is the oxidation of rising methane (CH₄) emissions from sources like fossil fuels, agriculture, and landfills — this alone added about 27 million tons of hydrogen annually by 2020.

Hydrogen itself is not a direct greenhouse gas, but it indirectly warms the climate by reacting with hydroxyl radicals (OH), the atmosphere’s “detergent.” This reduces OH availability, allowing methane (a potent greenhouse gas) to persist longer. Additional effects include increased tropospheric ozone, stratospheric water vapor, and influences on aerosols/clouds.

The study estimates hydrogen’s 100-year Global Warming Potential (GWP-100) at around 11 (±4), and 20-year GWP at 37 (±18) — meaning it’s roughly 11 times more warming than CO₂ over 100 years on a per-mass basis.

Over 2010–2020, rising hydrogen levels contributed about 0.02°C to global warming, a small but non-negligible amount comparable to the cumulative emissions impact of a country like France.

Soil bacteria absorb ~70% of hydrogen emissions, acting as a major sink, but rising levels still alter atmospheric chemistry.

Hydrogen is key for decarbonizing sectors like steel, shipping, and aviation. However, leaks across the value chain (production, storage, transport, use) could exacerbate indirect warming, especially short-term.

Diagram illustrating the global hydrogen budget, showcasing the relationship between methane (CH4), hydrogen (H2), and their effects on atmospheric chemistry, including increased water vapor and tropospheric ozone.
The Global Hydrogen Cycle

From Blackout- News

Hydrogen is considered the engine of the energy transition, but hydrogen emissions can worsen the climate balance. The reason is methane degradation, because additional reactions change the chemistry of the atmosphere. At the same time, leaks along production, transport and storage remain a real weak point, and soil microbes act as a sink to determine the net effect (science: 17.12.25).

Header graphic featuring the logo of 'Bild der Wissenschaft' and associated website links.
Hydrogen storage tanks with 'H2' labels against a blue sky, highlighting the role of hydrogen in the energy transition.

How hydrogen emissions slow methane degradation
Methane escapes from gas infrastructure, livestock farming and landfills, and it has a very strong effect on temperature in the first few years. Nevertheless, it usually disappears after ten to twelve years because hydroxyl radicals break it down in a chain of reactions. Experts summarize this process as methane degradation, and they measure it by the availability of these radicals. CH4 degradation produces water and carbon dioxide, but also hydrogen as a by-product.

Zutao Ouyang of Stanford University clearly describes the bottleneck because hydrogen requires the same reaction partners. “More hydrogen means less OH in the atmosphere, which means that methane persists longer and thus warms the climate for longer,” he explains. As a result, H2 releases shift the rate of degradation and methane degradation slows down. This indirect pathway makes hydrogen emissions relevant to climate policy, even though H2 itself absorbs hardly any thermal radiation.

Why infrastructure and control determine the benefits

Ouyang and his team have taken stock of the global hydrogen cycle from 1990 to 2020, and they wanted to bring sources and sinks to a sustainable scale. Robert Jackson formulates the goal as follows: “We need a deeper understanding of the global hydrogen cycle and its links to global warming to support a climate-safe and sustainable hydrogen economy,” he says. For the energy transition, therefore, it is not enough to look at final consumption, but rather the energy conversion in industry and grids.

Jackson also refers to a technical fact, because H2 escapes particularly easily. “Hydrogen is the smallest molecule in the world and easily escapes from pipelines, production plants and reservoirs,” explains Jackson.

Operators can reduce leaks, but they need measurement routines, material standards and fast repairs. Leaks cost efficiency, and at the same time they exacerbate the climate effect if more hydrogen is released into the air.

Soil processes determine how much H2 remains in the air

The study attributes the growing inflows to several drivers, and it explicitly mentions human activities. “H2 sources increased from 1990 to 2020, mainly due to the oxidation of methane and other anthropogenic volatile organic compounds, biogenic nitrogen fixation, and leakage in H2 production,” the research team reports. This produces more hydrogen, and at the same time changes the reaction conditions in the atmosphere.

On the sink side, soil microbes play the main role because they use H2 as an energy source. “The world’s most important way hydrogen is removed from the atmosphere is through microbes in the soil that use H2 for their energy production,” the researchers write. These soil bacteria work over a large area, and they react directly to the concentration. In this way, they partially buffer increases, but they do not completely close the balance.

Figures show where politics and technology can start

Between 2010 and 2020, an average of 69.9 million tonnes of hydrogen per year was released into the atmosphere, and the sinks reabsorbed a large part. This balance sheet counts for the energy transition because it makes the biggest levers visible. Soil microbes removed around 50 million tonnes, and chemical reactions removed another 18.4 million tonnes. Nevertheless, a gap of about 1.55 million tons remained, so the grade continued to rise. This trend is coupled to methane sources, and hydrogen emissions thus amplify the indirect warming effect. Leaks remain controllable if operators check consistently.

“We estimate that the increase in atmospheric H2 between 2010 and 2020 contributed to an increase in global surface air temperature of 0.02 degrees Celsius,” the team said. In practice, therefore, two things count, and both can be planned: networks must remain tight, and operators must find leaks quickly. At the same time, projects need robust sinks, because soil microbes only have a sufficient effect if soils remain intact. Hydrogen emissions must therefore be reduced, and the energy transition needs dense systems and stable soils.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

Infographic illustrating the global hydrogen budget, showing the distribution of hydrogen sources and sinks in the atmosphere, soil, and industrial processes.

The global hydrogen budget

The global hydrogen budget | Nature

Hydrogen (H2) has received increased attention as an energy carrier to help decarbonize heavy industry and transport and to provide long-duration energy storage1. When produced by electrolysis with renewable energy, hydrogen can, in principle, be produced and consumed with near-zero carbon emissions. As a result, many energy-system scenarios project substantial growth in H2 production and utilization this century1,6.

At present, hydrogen production is energy- and greenhouse gas-intensive. More than 90% of hydrogen produced today is grey hydrogen, derived mainly from steam methane reforming or coal gasification, which are both carbon-intensive1. In anticipated net-zero scenarios, however, a shift towards cleaner, low-carbon hydrogen production is projected1,7. This transition encompasses both green hydrogen produced through electrolysis powered by low- or zero-carbon electricity, and blue hydrogen generated by reforming fossil fuels coupled with carbon capture and storage. Ultimately, green and blue hydrogen are projected to dominate hydrogen manufacturing by 2030–2040 (ref. 6).

.s41586-025-09806-1Herunterladen

Infographic illustrating the global hydrogen budget and atmospheric hydrogen concentrations, showing trends in methane and non-methane volatile organic compounds (NMVOCs), along with soil uptake and anthropogenic emissions.

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Taxpayer-backed net zero project axed after five months

A £14m taxpayer-funded scheme to deploy a fleet of hydrogen-fuelled delivery trucks across the South East has collapsed just five months after it was launched.

A hydrogen-fuelled delivery truck parked next to a hydrogen refuelling station, with wind turbines and solar panels in the background.

Hydrogen-fuelled trucks scheme scrapped as companies reluctant to commit to vehicles

A £14m taxpayer-funded scheme to deploy a fleet of hydrogen-fuelled delivery trucks across the South East has collapsed just five months after it was launched. The Telegraph has the story.

Under the HyHaul scheme set up by Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, three hydrogen refuelling stations were to be set up along the M4 – supplying a fleet of 30 lorries delivering to factories and stores.

However, millions of pounds of taxpayer cash now hang in the balance after the project was scrapped owing to reluctance among trucking companies to commit to the vehicles.

The collapse of HyHaul is just the latest of several hydrogen schemes recently abandoned as hype around the net zero fuel fades.

Other scrapped projects include H2Teesside, a project pioneered by Ed Miliband where BP planned a plant to turn natural gas into hydrogen, burying the waste CO2 from the process under the North Sea.

The oil giant shelved the plans earlier this month after it clashed with separate plans backed by Sir Keir Starmer to construct the largest data centre in Europe.

The Government has also abandoned its hydrogen towns scheme under which whole communities would have seen natural gas blended with or replaced by hydrogen.

Chris Jackson, chairman of HyHaul, said: “The problem is very clear. Customers weren’t willing to sign and weren’t willing to pay. So the question now for the Government and for the industry is, how do you solve that?

“If there is going to be a future role for hydrogen in transport, it will have to be driven by industry feeling that they need to invest in it as a zero-emission technology.

“Because with HyHaul the energy industry and government came forward with money and a product, and despite the Road Haulage Association telling us that customers wanted it, the trucking firms didn’t buy it.”

From mainstream fuel to niche status

The HyHaul scheme is part of a wider government strategy to use hydrogen to store and carry energy produced by wind, solar or from natural gas.

It dates back to 2021 when Boris Johnson’s government published its Hydrogen Strategy suggesting that wind and solar farms would eventually make so much of the gas that it would supply over a third of UK energy by 2050.

Mr Miliband was due to publish a revised version of the strategy this month, now postponed till 2026, which is expected to abandon all production targets – relegating hydrogen from mainstream fuel to niche status.

Read the full story here.

EDP is ‘seriously considering’ rejecting European Hydrogen Bank subsidy due to lack of visibility on demand

A large green hydrogen project being developed in Spain by EDP is in line for subsidies via the European Hydrogen Bank. But Hydrogen Insight has learned that the Portuguese energy firm is considering an exit from the process, amid a lack of clarity for potential off takers around regulations to drive demand.

A dramatic scene of a zeppelin exploding in mid-air, with flames and smoke billowing out, against a blue sky.

From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

h/t Doug Brodie

From Hydrogen Insight:

Headline about EDP considering rejecting European Hydrogen Bank subsidy due to demand visibility issues

A large green hydrogen project being developed in Spain by EDP is in line for subsidies via the European Hydrogen Bank. But Hydrogen Insight has learned that the Portuguese energy firm is considering an exit from the process, amid a lack of clarity for potential off takers around regulations to drive demand.

Full story here.

This goes to the heart of why investors are reluctant to build hydrogen and carbon capture projects, in spite of the obscene subsidies on offer.

We have of course already seen BP pull the plug on their Teesside Hydrogen/CCS plant and the collapse of the Acorn carbon capture scheme in Scotland.

The concern of all three projects is whether there will be sufficient demand for their products. Hydrogen, is of course, ridiculously expensive compared to gas, even without carbon capture. So who on earth would want to swap gas for hydrogen?

Similarly, why would businesses pay to pipe their CO2 away?

In theory, companies will have no other choice, as natural gas will either be banned or priced out of the market by punitive carbon taxes.

But all these taxes will do is force businesses to pack up and move abroad. So, what then for EDP’s hydrogen plant or BP’s hydrogen power station?

Worse still, for these investors, is the risk that future governments will abolish Net Zero completely, or at the very least keep carbon taxes low. In that event, their business model is completely shot.

BP abandons UK green energy plant in blow to Miliband

BP has shelved plans to build a major hydrogen project in Teesside in a fresh blow to Ed Miliband’s net zero plans.

A close-up image of a gas pipe featuring a valve and pressure gauge, with a visible 'H2' marking, alongside the BP logo on a dark background.

Oil giant withdraws application for major hydrogen project in Teesside

BP has shelved plans to build a major hydrogen project in Teesside in a fresh blow to Ed Miliband’s net zero plans. The Telegraph has the story.

The oil giant withdrew its request to the Government on Monday to build the project after it clashed with separate plans backed by Sir Keir Starmer to construct the largest data centre in Europe.

It comes after Downing Street selected a former steel site in Teesside as the home for its second AI Growth Zone, with Labour banking on the technology to help turbocharge the economy.

The two proposed sites were earmarked on overlapping plots of land, pitting the Energy Secretary – who was relying on the BP project to meet his net zero ambitions – against the Prime Minister and Peter Kyle, the Business Secretary.

BP said a decision by the Labour-led Redcar and Cleveland council to throw its weight behind the data centre ultimately made its project unviable.

In a letter to the Energy Department, a spokesman for the BP-backed H2Teesside project insisted its decision had “not been taken lightly”.

It said it still believed hydrogen had “an important role to play in the future energy market”.

A spokesman for BP also blamed “material changes in circumstances” including “a planning application being granted locally for a data centre on the same piece of land” for its decision to withdraw from the project.

Sir Keir has claimed that AI will help the Government deliver a “decade of national renewal”, with plans for the new AI growth zone now expected to be announced before Christmas.

Tensions between the Energy Department and Mr Kyle over the competing projects escalated to such an extent that the Business Secretary even explored legal routes to attempt to influence Mr Miliband’s decision.

Mr Miliband had already twice delayed a decision on whether to grant the development consent order (DCO) to start producing “blue” hydrogen from natural gas, and then capture and store the carbon emissions.

A decision was due on Thursday Dec 4, but it is understood that BP has withdrawn its application for the DCO ahead of an announcement in order to make way for the data centre to be built.

Read the full story here.

Keir Starmer overrules Ed Miliband to snub net zero project

Sir Keir Starmer has overruled Ed Miliband by snubbing plans for a green energy plant in a major blow to the Energy Secretary’s net zero plans.

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Prime Minister picks AI over energy in blow to plans for a major hydrogen plant

Sir Keir Starmer has overruled Ed Miliband by snubbing plans for a green energy plant in a major blow to the Energy Secretary’s net zero plans. The Telegraph has the story.

The Prime Minister has effectively closed the door on the construction of a major hydrogen project on Teesside – believed to be backed by Mr Miliband – by deciding to endorse a rival tech development near the site, according to correspondence seen by The Telegraph.

The H2Teesside plan, proposed by BP, would have produced so-called “blue” hydrogen that could have provided up to 10pc of the supply Mr Miliband has said Britain would need by 2030.

However, the plan clashes with proposals on nearby land for Europe’s largest data centre – backed by Teesworks, the public-private partnership supported by Tees Valley mayor Lord Houchen.

A letter to Lord Houchen from Peter Kyle, the Business Secretary, confirms that the Government is planning to designate the Teesworks site as an “AI growth zone”, a central plank of the Prime Minister’s plan to make Britain an artificial intelligence hub.

It describes the Teesworks data centre as “the cornerstone of the UK’s AI strategy” and states that Sir Keir’s AI adviser will join a group dedicated to the project.

The decision to designate the site an AI growth zone was made by the AI task force, chaired by Number 10.

“The Government will put its full weight behind Teesworks and Teesside International Airport becoming an AI growth zone,” the letter says, adding that ministers will push major AI companies to invest in the project.

The letter is due to be published by the Planning Inspectorate on Friday as part of a review of the hydrogen project. Last month Mr Miliband delayed a decision on it until the end of October “to allow time to request further information”.

The data centre and hydrogen plant projects are on overlapping plots of land and planning documents have stated that they are incompatible.

Read the full story here.

Difficult times for hydrogen

In recent months, several large hydrogen projects in Europe have been cancelled, postponed or greatly downsized, mainly due to high costs, uncertain demand and delayed subsidies.

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From KlimaNachrichten

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In recent months, several large hydrogen projects in Europe have been cancelled, postponed or greatly downsized, mainly due to high costs, uncertain demand and delayed subsidies.
This does not only apply to Germany, where it seems almost hopeless to produce even more expensive hydrogen from expensive electricity. Other countries are also affected.

Here are some of the most important cases:
 

Germany
 LEAG (Lausitz Energie): The planned green energy centre on the site of decommissioned coal-fired power plants in eastern Germany was postponed indefinitely in June 2025

ArcelorMittal: The conversion of two steel mills to green hydrogen (€2.5 billion project) has been paused despite €1.3 billion in subsidies

Statkraft: In May 2025, the Norwegian energy company stopped the development of new green hydrogen projects, including projects in Germany. Existing projects such as those in Emden will only be pursued with external investors

Spain
 Iberdrola: Reduced its hydrogen targets by almost two-thirds in March 2024 – from 350,000 to 120,000 Tonnes by 2030

Repsol: In February 2025, lowered the target for electrolysis capacity by up to 63% by 2030

Norway
 Shell: Scrapped plans for a low-carbon hydrogen plant on the West Coast in September 2024

Equinor: Canceled a similar project as well

Finland
 Neste: Withdrew from a renewable hydrogen production project in Porvoo in October 2024.

£2 Billion UK Hydrogen Plant Cancelled

The Telegraph brings news of the latest setback for the green scam industry:

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From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

The Telegraph brings news of the latest setback for the green scam industry:

The world’s largest hydrogen producer has abandoned plans to build a £2bn green energy factory in Britain, dealing a blow to the Government’s bid to attract foreign investment.

US-based Air Products has pulled the proposed green hydrogen project in Humberside over claims of government foot-dragging, as bosses attacked a “lack of commitment” by ministers.

Air Products first announced details of the proposed plant in Immingham three years ago, which was set to convert imported ammonia into green hydrogen and employ around 3,000 people.

At the time, it said it was in “positive talks” with ministers and officials, as it vowed to be “an important contributor to the Government’s plans to make the UK a global leader in low-carbon hydrogen”.

However, in a letter seen by The Times to Martin Vickers, Tory MP for Immingham, Air Products revealed it was walking away from the project in protest at a lack of ministerial support.

Suzanne Lowe, the company’s UK boss, wrote: “Current government policy supports a number of blue and green hydrogen production processes but specifically excludes hydrogen production from imported renewable ammonia.

“The decision not to open up key support measures to our hydrogen production pathway leaves us with no viable path to build and operate a large-scale hydrogen production facility in the UK.”

It marks an end to the project, which appeared to have been given the go-ahead in February when planning permission for an accompanying terminal was approved.

However, Air Products has pulled the project just months after also exiting three green hydrogen plants in the US.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/hydrogen-giant-abandons-2bn-british-factory-plans-labour-refused-to-back/ar-AA1GRxBr

Let’s be absolutely clear about this – when they use weasel words like “support measures”, what they really mean is subsidies.

If there was a viable market for their product, they would go ahead and build their factory anyway. The fact that they has also pulled out of hydrogen plants in the US confirms this.

The whole thing is a giant con anyway. They use nonsensical words like “green hydrogen”, but how is their ammonia feedstock made in the first place?

The only bulk production of ammonia is done via the Haber-Bosch process, which combines nitrogen and hydrogen. The only bulk source of hydrogen, of course, is steam reforming natural gas, a process that results in massive emissions of CO2!

So in this upside down world of Net Zero, we make hydrogen from natural gas, emitting lots of CO2, then combine it with nitrogen in another energy intensive process to make ammonia. This is then shipped half way around the world, where in another energy intensive process the hydrogen is then split out again, so we can burn it in exactly the same way as would the natural gas in the first place!

But apparently this will save the planet. I guess even the Mad Miliband has seen through this scam!