Green Hydrogen Goes From Hyped to Humbled on Eye-Popping Costs

A raft of projects to produce green hydrogen, a fuel billed as critical to reaching net zero, have been abandoned this year as expectations for tumbling costs failed to materialize.

Governments and major energy companies have touted the gas as a way to clean up a swath of industries. But the uneconomic cost of production has forced multiple developers to scrap plans, leaving the nascent sector struggling to attract the billions of dollars it needs to meaningfully cut carbon emissions.

“There’s been a reality check in terms of the costs that hydrogen projects entail,” said Gniewomir Flis, an independent hydrogen ...