State help needed for unbankable hydrogen projects

Governments must step in to help projects progress to stage where banks will provide support, financiers tell World Hydrogen Summit

The clean hydrogen sector needs government support to help it through the early stages of development as banks will remain reluctant to finance projects until they start generating cashflow, financiers say. “A lot of projects are being worked on, but very little financing is available from the banking industry today because hydrogen is not really bankable,” Max Gottschalk, managing partner at London-based investor Hycap, told the World Hydrogen Summit in Rotterdam. “The government will play a very critical role in the initial phase of the development of the hydrogen market, providing some financing to projects that cannot get financing from banks.” Hycap is strongly focused on investing in t