Almost Nobody Is Buying Hydrogen, Dashing Its Green Power Hopes

Hydrogen’s potential as a carbon-free fuel has provoked no end of excitement. From the deserts of Australia and Namibia to the wind-blasted straits of Patagonia, companies and governments worldwide plan to build almost 1,600 plants to make it. The gas can be produced cleanly by using wind- or solar-powered electricity in a process that splits the molecule from water. There’s only one problem: The vast majority of those projects don’t have a single customer stepping up to buy the fuel.

Among the handful with some kind of fuel purchase agreement, most have vague, nonbinding arrangements that can be quietly discarded ...