[ industry trends ]
Electrolyser producers and emerging players
10 9
15
18 |
61 |
Europe North America China APAC |
17 |
50 |
Alkaline PEM SOEC AEM Other |
22 39
Notes Numbers shown are number of players as of March 2024
9
4
APAC data excludes China In the technology split, some players feature more than once Alkaline includes pressurised and atmospheric pressure PEM – Proton Exchange Membrane SOEC – Solid Oxide Electrolysis AEM – Anion Exchange Membrane OEM – Commercial electrolyser production Integrator – purchasing stacks and building systems Stacks – focused on stack production, not systems Demo – first commercial demonstration acheived |
13
19
|
66 |
OEM Startup Integrator Stacks Demo |
|
|
|
© 2024 sbh4 GmbH |
Hydrogen electrolyser sector consolidation
Consolidation within the green hydrogen electrolyser development, production, and deployment value chain will snowball through to the end of this decade. At present, weak players are being propped up by subsidies and false hope. Poor ideas with only marginal potential are being hyped up as revolutionary. Consolidation will mean the survival of the fittest. Those with the best technology, the best commercialisation strategy, and the strongest partnerships will make it. Others will either fall by the wayside or be integrated into the winners in one way or another. There will be winners and losers along the way, but the industry will enter the 2030s in much better shape than it is now.
By Stephen B. Harrison, sbh4 consulting
Innovation needs strength
Finance for speculative innovation in the electrolyser value chain will become scarce and increasingly expensive. The wave of buy-side Venture Capital( VC) investor interest from the past five years is likely to shift to Private Equity( PE) consolidation plays and other value-seeking deals.
The next wave of high-value green hydrogen electrolyser transactions will optimise the value of what has been achieved over the past 10 years and leverage aspects that are currently being commercialised.
This is precisely what the sector needs. There will inevitably be rising costs of innovation as
16 Hydrogen Tech World | Issue 21 | April 2025