Everywhere you look these days, it seems someone is writing the obituary for green hydrogen. Recent headlines from Bloomberg News and the New York Times are skeptical, if not outright dismissive of hydrogen’s future. The stories point to cost challenges, slower-than-expected project rollouts, and policy uncertainty that have fueled the perception that hydrogen’s moment has passed before it truly began.
The truth is more complicated — and more hopeful. The bigger picture is that hydrogen—already widely in use across industries--is evolving, and FuelCell Energy’s solid oxide electrolyzer (SOEC) technology is leading the way.
Hydrogen Demand Is Rising, Not Falling
First, let’s look at the macro picture. While it’s true the green hydrogen industry faces headwinds, the idea that it’s on its deathbed ignores both the scale of the challenge it’s designed to meet and the real, measurable progress being made.
Hydrogen is uniquely suited to applications where other technologies fall short:
Additionally, hydrogen is considered a viable option for reducing carbon emissions in industries and applications that are difficult to electrify. Advances in technology and strategic partnerships, such as the collaboration between FuelCell Energy and the U.S. Department of Energy at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), are contributing to the exploration of pairing nuclear energy with solid oxide electrolyzers to produce hydrogen during plant downtime. These factors contribute to a more balanced long-term perspective than may be indicated by current headlines.
FuelCell Energy’s High-Efficiency SOEC Advantage
Most hydrogen today is produced through steam methane reforming (SMR), a process that emits roughly 10 kg of CO₂ for every 1 kg of hydrogen produced. That’s not clean.
And while low-temperature electrolysis technologies like PEM and alkaline systems offer a cleaner alternative, they struggle with efficiency, cost, and scalability.
FuelCell Energy’s SOEC platform is designed to overcome these limitations with key differentiators that include:
FuelCell Energy’s SOEC technology operates at high temperatures, enabling unmatched efficiency—34 kWh/kg at the stack level and 40–45 kWh/kg at the system level. When paired with industrial or nuclear heat, efficiency improves even further, reducing the levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) by up to 10% compared to PEM.
Hydrogen purity exceeds 99.85%, suitable for demanding industrial applications. And the modular repeat unit (MRU) design allows for rapid deployment and flexible scaling from pilot systems to 200+ MW clusters.
This isn’t just theory. FuelCell Energy’s 150 kg/day SOEC system undergoing testing at the INL will show how efficiently it runs when simulated nuclear waste heat is applied.
Global Partnerships Driving Market Adoption
FuelCell Energy’s optimism about hydrogen’s future isn’t theoretical either— it’s grounded in market demand.
FuelCell Energy and Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Holdings Berhad (KLSE: MHB) are collaborating to support a contract awarded to FuelCell Energy for a Detailed Feasibility Study (DFS) of a low-carbon fuel production facility in Malaysia. The DFS will evaluate the production of low-carbon fuel utilizing SOEC technology with carbon dioxide and water as feedstocks.
These partnerships are critical steps toward validating the technology at scale, building supply chains, and proving the business case for green hydrogen.
Building the Path Forward
It’s true that hydrogen faces hurdles. The cost of renewable electricity, the need for extensive infrastructure, and competition from incumbent fuels are all real challenges. But these are growing pains common to any transformative technology.
The pathway to lower costs is clear: economies of scale, localized manufacturing, and integration with industrial processes that already produce or use steam and heat. Early projects like those FuelCell Energy is involved in are essential to building the technical and economic foundation for widespread adoption.
Hydrogen’s obituary may make for a catchy headline. But in the real world, hydrogen’s story is still being written — and the next chapters are just beginning.