Distributional trends in the generation and end-use sector of low-carbon hydrogen plants

TL;DR

This study analyzes global low-carbon hydrogen projects, revealing sectoral distribution trends, regional differences, and exponential growth in capacity, using statistical and regression methods to understand the factors influencing project development.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive statistical analysis of distributional trends and predictors in low-carbon hydrogen project capacities across sectors and regions.

Findings

Exponential growth in hydrogen plant capacity observed.

Similar distribution patterns across industry sectors.

Significant increase in new hydrogen projects in the 2020s.

Abstract

This paper uses established and recently introduced methods from the applied mathematics and statistics literature to study trends in the end-use sector and capacity of low-carbon hydrogen projects in recent and upcoming decades. First, we examine distributions in plants over time for various end-use sectors and classify them according to metric discrepancy, observing clear similarity across all industry sectors. Next, we compare the distribution of usage sectors among different continents and examine the changes in sector distribution over time. Finally, we judiciously apply several regression models to analyse the association between various predictors and the capacity of global hydrogen projects. Across our experiments, we see a welcome exponential growth in the capacity of zero-carbon hydrogen plants and significant growth of new and planned hydrogen plants in the 2020's across every sector.