Climate activists and supporters high in the White House have long promised that green hydrogen was key to replacing fossil fuels in difficult-to-electrify sectors, brushing aside critics’ concerns wholesale. [some emphasis, links added]
Now, the list of failed hydrogen projects has grown quite long, squandering billions of dollars on yet another futile climate initiative.
An American company that specializes in hydrogen officially canceled plans to build a green hydrogen plant at the Port of Antwerp.
In mid-August, Plug Power cited “uncertainty about economic viability” in explaining the cancellation, which will force the company to take a $15.9 million loss.
According to the energy newsletter FCW, in August 2026, the U.S. Department of Energy withdrew Plug Power’s loan guarantee of $1.66 billion after the first drawdown deadline lapsed without any funding being disbursed, marking the withdrawal of a crucial source of funding for its various plants that were under consideration in the United States.
Hydrogen enjoyed quite a bit of hype during the Biden-Harris administration as it promised to replace a lot of fossil fuel use.
Even early on, researchers and industry critics expressed grave doubts that the industry had a future. Plug Power’s latest cancellation is one in a string of failures that vindicate critics who said the industry was all hype.
No feasible direct means to replace that energy with electricity produced by wind and solar
Hydrogen can be produced using different feedstocks, including coal and natural gas. Hydrogen produced [through electrolysis powered by wind and solar, which] breaks water into hydrogen and oxygen, is called green hydrogen.
While most climate policies [focus] on reducing emissions from electricity generation and passenger cars, industry and heavy transportation produce a large share of energy demand and global emissions.
Virtually all of that energy comes from fossil fuels, and there is no feasible direct means to replace it with electricity produced by wind and solar.
Anti-fossil fuel advocates saw green hydrogen as the path to net-zero and their dream of a world powered entirely by energy from the wind and sun. Net-zero means the amount of greenhouse gas emissions added to the atmosphere equals the amount removed.
Canary Media, a climate activist publication that was founded by the anti-fossil fuel Rocky Mountain Institute, predicted in 2024 that green hydrogen would spur a Gulf Coast boom.
Microsoft founder Bill Gates called it the “Swiss army knife” of decarbonization.
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