Projects must bridge finance gap with equity markets

Commercial lenders are unlikely to provide debt financing in the short term, but options exist

Hydrogen projects in Asia-Pacific will need to rely on equity markets to bridge a funding gap in the short-to-medium term until the industry matures to a point where financial investors are willing to provide debt cash for projects, delegates heard at a recent industry conference. Most new funding for hydrogen last year and much of this year was raised by publicly listed companies such as ITM Power, Plug Power and Sunfire, as they issued new shares to investors to secure capital for expanding manufacturing facilities, according to the IEA’s Global Hydrogen Report, released in October. In contrast, there have been few financing deals for green and blue hydrogen projects on the ground. Some fi