By the end of the year, the capacity for producing hydrogen is predicted to increase by 165% from 2022 to 4.5 million tons per year (mtpa) globally, according to GlobalData, a top provider of data and analytics.
In its most recent report, “Hydrogen Transition Outlook and Trends: Q1 2023,” GlobalData identifies deal trends and investment patterns as valuable benchmarks for determining which top companies are fueling the growth of the hydrogen market.
Andres Angulo, Energy Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “During 2022, over 393 deals related to hydrogen were closed, representing a significant increase compared to 277 deals registered in 2021. This shows an upward trend in the hydrogen market development, which could be decisive in achieving over 71 mtpa capacity worldwide by 2030. However, the partnerships represented 66% of the deals last year, and the number of deals decreased after Q2 2022 to numbers even below those seen in the same quarter in 2021. This could have been due to the companies trying to strengthen their core business and diversify the investment risk given the global economic situation.”
Investing and obtaining finance was crucial to the development of the hydrogen economy in 2022, notwithstanding the higher number of business collaborations than those between governments. The value of merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions rose by 288% from 2021 levels to $24.4 billion in value last year. The value of venture capital deals, on the other hand, increased from $595.23 million to nearly $3,001.1 million.
In 2022, the US, Denmark, Egypt, Canada, Portugal, and other nations announced hydrogen capacity of over 111.9 mtpa. Green Hydrogen International (GHI) announced two significant green hydrogen projects with a combined 43 mtpa capacity in Canada. Both projects are scheduled to start producing green hydrogen in 2030. In order to diversify their risk, several other businesses, like Fortescue Industries, which has two-thirds of its capacity outside of its native country of Australia, participated in numerous project investments around the world.
With a total operating capacity of 56.3 mtpa, organizations including GHI, Suez Canal Economic Zone, New and Renewable Energy Authority, Sovereign Fund of Egypt, and Egyptian Electricity Transmission Co. are the world leaders in low carbon hydrogen production. With electrolysis being a significant green technique for producing low-carbon hydrogen, there is now a pipeline for more than 1,065 GW of electrolysis capacity. Manufacturing firms like Hydrogenics, Nel ASA, ThyssenKrupp, ITM Power, HydrogenPro, Enapter, and Plug Power are primarily responsible for producing this.
Companies like Globeleq Africa, Linde, John Wood Group, ThyssenKrupp, H2-Industries, Alcazar Energy, and Samsung Engineering took advantage of the rising demand for hydrogen capacity during the previous year as the hydrogen economy grew to become the Engineering, Procurement & Construction (EPC) leaders for sustainable projects.
Angulo concludes: “Despite the challenging global economic conditions, the number of investments in low-carbon hydrogen increased from 600 to over 1,700 between Q4 2021 and Q4 2022. As of January 2023, 93% of both active and pipeline hydrogen projects were green, as reflected by the increasing manufacturers’ electrolysis capacity and the number of EPC contractors participating in bigger green projects. This, in addition to the renewable energy development, will create a momentum that will accelerate the cost reduction across the entire hydrogen value chain.”
