The fuel has been touted as the energy source of tomorrow for so long that it might start to feel like yesterday’s news, however. Developers, governments and investors still struggle to see where demand will come from and what infrastructure must be built first.
Dr Emma Guthrie, chief executive of the Hydrogen Energy Association (HEA), believes the strongest case for hydrogen is to fill in the gaps left by electrification. Hydrogen has a role in industrial decarbonisation and energy system balancing, she says, as well as off-grid power, mobility and sectors where grid constraints mean “we need additional solutions just to help move along the decarbonisation case”.
The HEA and two other industry bodies representing the sector believe in strength in numbers. Hydrogen Scotland, Hydrogen Ireland and the HEA have aligned around a common goal: the UK and Ireland should be less like disconnected national markets and more like a European-facing hydrogen region.
“We've come through the hydrogen bubble and we’ve come through the get-rich-quick cowboys, every snake oil in the world,” says Paul McCormack, CEO of Hydrogen Ireland. “When Putin invaded Ukraine, everybody wanted hydrogen.” Now, he says, the sector is in “a period of sober reality”.
That sober reality might have less hype, but no less promise. McCormack says Ireland and Scotland are linked by geography, energy systems and supply chains. “It makes sense to not compete but collaborate with your neighbours now – and the reason that makes sense is because we’re not in competition,” he says.
By working together, the organisations plan to capitalise on each other’s strengths. The Scottish government has set a target of 5GW of installed hydrogen production by 2030, rising to 25GW by 2045. Scotland has the renewable resources and industrial base to turn surplus clean electricity into molecules that can be stored, shipped or used in sectors where direct electrification is difficult, while Ireland is eyeing similar opportunities around energy independence and export markets. The wider UK, according to McCormack, brings a clutch of industrial clusters, customers and investment networks.
The engineering challenge will be whether this can become an integrated system. Hydrogen production needs offtakers, who in turn need confidence in price and supply.
Nigel Holmes, CEO of Hydrogen Scotland, says that is why the three associations have moved closer together. Hydrogen, he says, has “come out of the shadows” over the past seven or eight years, but the sector still needs a clearer picture of what works. Backing up his point, 61% of people within the industry say policy and regulatory uncertainty is the biggest barrier to them investing further in the hydrogen sector, according to the State of the Hydrogen Nation Report, published by the HEA.
Guthrie says the report was intended to “test the temperature” of the sector, including confidence levels, strategic plans and the challenges companies were experiencing. The aim was to use it “as an engaging tool with government” when ministers assess “how ready the sector is to act” on hydrogen.
“We realised that there’s a lot of things that the associations have in common,” says Holmes. Last year, the groups began sharing member surveys to build “a comprehensive snapshot of what’s going on in the sector”.
The surveys helped solidify consensus on the need for partnership. “We now have projects moving forward from being concepts to actually being built,” Holmes says.
Pressing requirements include safety, which Holmes says often comes up in public consultations in the form of “Hindenburg and hydrogen bombs”. Local water availability can be another issue if projects are not designed carefully.
But the goal is a lofty one: McCormack says the three bodies can help create a “connected hydrogen region” by taking a common message to Dublin, Belfast, London and Brussels. Ireland’s EU presidency, which runs from July to December 2026, gives the groups a political moment to make that case to Europe.
McCormack recalls developing an early electrolyser project in Ireland and “writing a new rule book, because there was no rule book there before”. The question now, he says, is: “How do we use those shared pathways to remove friction from those pathways?”
Those pathways can provide significant changes to the energy mix. In construction and infrastructure, hydrogen power units could replace diesel generators where there is not enough grid capacity to charge electric equipment. And hydrogen more broadly could turn renewable electricity into storable molecules for backup power, seasonal storage, ammonia, methanol or sustainable aviation fuel.
Yet there are still obstacles in the way. “At the moment, the challenge is the economics,” says Holmes.
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