Hydrogen infrastructure: the missing link in the energy transition

In recent years, hydrogen has evolved from a niche energy vector into a strategic pillar of global energy policies. Governments, institutions and industry see it as a key lever for decarbonising hard-to-electrify sectors — from heavy industry to long-distance transport — and announced investments continue to grow. Yet, despite strong momentum on the production side, the hydrogen market still struggles to move beyond the scale of pilot projects (except for a limited number of large-scale initiatives designed for on-site use).

The reason is increasingly clear: the main constraint is no longer purely technological, but infrastructural.

As highlighted by the International Energy Agency and the Hydrogen Council, there is currently a structural mismatch between the potential capacity to produce hydrogen — particularly renewable hydrogen — and the ability to transport, store and distribute it efficiently and at scale. In other words, hydrogen can be produced, but it cannot always be delivered where it is needed, when it is needed, and at a competitive cost.

Unlike other energy sources, hydrogen does not yet benefit from a mature infrastructure network. Natural gas, for instance, has developed over decades through sustained investment in pipelines, terminals and storage systems. Hydrogen, by contrast, is still in a phase where these infrastructures must be built — or repurposed — almost from scratch, often in parallel with the emergence of demand.

This creates a circular dynamic that slows down the entire system: without infrastructure, demand does not develop; but without demand, it is difficult to justify large-scale infrastructure investments.

The result is a fragmented ecosystem, where many projects remain confined to local or regional contexts, without connecting to wider networks. Even in more advanced settings, such as the European Union, strategies promoted by the European Commission — from hydrogen corridors to plans for a “European Hydrogen Backbone” — highlight how central the infrastructure challenge is, and how much of it is still under development.

To fully understand the role of hydrogen infrastructure, it is necessary to move beyond a linear view of the value chain and adopt a systemic perspective. Hydrogen is not simply “produced and used”: between these two endpoints lies a complex infrastructure chain, structured around four fundamental dimensions: production, transport, storage and distribution.

The first dimension is production. In recent years, attention has focused primarily on renewable hydrogen, produced via electrolysis using energy from renewable sources. In this context, the challenge is no longer purely technological, but also geographical and systemic: production tends to be located where renewable energy is abundant and low-cost, often far from major industrial demand centres. This makes the development of transport infrastructure over medium and long distances unavoidable.

Transport, in particular, represents one of the most critical dimensions. The available options — dedicated pipelines, repurposing of existing gas networks, transport by road or rail, or shipping in the form of liquid hydrogen or chemical carriers such as ammonia and methanol — differ significantly in terms of cost, scalability and technological maturity. As highlighted by the International Energy Agency, the choice of transport solution is not neutral: it directly affects the economic competitiveness of hydrogen and the configuration of future supply chains.

Alongside transport, storage represents another central infrastructure challenge. Unlike other energy sources, hydrogen is difficult to store efficiently: it requires high-pressure compression, liquefaction at extremely low temperatures, or the use of underground geological formations. Each option involves trade-offs in terms of cost, safety and capacity. Without adequate storage systems, however, it becomes impossible to manage the variability of renewable energy production and ensure continuity of supply.

Finally, distribution represents the last link in the chain. It refers to the ability to deliver hydrogen to end users — industry, mobility and energy applications — through local networks, industrial hubs or dedicated infrastructure. In many cases, as noted by the Hydrogen Council and the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, the development of hydrogen hubs and regional clusters is currently the most pragmatic solution: concentrating production, demand and infrastructure within limited geographic areas to overcome initial scale constraints.

These four dimensions are not independent, but deeply interconnected. A limitation in transport capacity can make a production plant inefficient; insufficient storage can compromise supply stability; the absence of distribution infrastructure can prevent demand from emerging. This is why, as consistently highlighted in international reports, hydrogen cannot develop through isolated components, but requires an integrated approach across the entire value chain.

While hydrogen production is accelerating significantly, the same cannot be said for the infrastructure required to move and store it at scale. This is where the main bottleneck of the entire value chain emerges: transport and storage are not only technically complex, but also require substantial investment, long lead times and a high degree of coordination between public and private actors.

Transport, in particular, represents a structural challenge. Unlike natural gas, hydrogen has physical properties that make it more difficult and costly to handle: it has a much lower volumetric energy density, can cause material embrittlement, and requires specific conditions to be compressed or liquefied. This limits the direct use of existing infrastructure and imposes non-trivial technological choices.

A further critical factor is the temporal misalignment between the development of production capacity and the rollout of transport infrastructure. While new electrolysis plants can be built within a few years, infrastructure networks require significantly longer timeframes, often due to complex permitting processes and investments that are difficult to justify without consolidated demand. This creates a “mutual waiting” effect that slows down the entire system.

Storage presents equally significant challenges. Hydrogen can be stored in compressed form, liquefied, or in underground geological formations, but none of these solutions is universally applicable. Compression requires energy and dedicated infrastructure; liquefaction involves extremely low temperatures (around −253 °C) and high costs; geological storage offers large capacity but is constrained by the availability of suitable sites and requires careful safety and environmental assessments.

In a context where transport and storage infrastructure still represent a bottleneck, decentralised hydrogen production emerges as a pragmatic solution to enable applications already today. Electrolysis systems at a relatively small scale — from a few megawatts to larger modular capacities — make it possible to produce hydrogen directly at the point of use, reducing dependence on distribution networks that are still limited or unavailable. This approach is particularly relevant for specific industrial applications or in contexts where demand is localised and continuous, helping to overcome constraints related to long-distance transport and storage.

While it does not replace the need for large-scale infrastructure, on-site production represents an immediate lever to accelerate hydrogen adoption, reducing logistical complexity and shortening implementation timelines.

While the development of new infrastructure is a necessary condition for the hydrogen economy, relying exclusively on newly built assets risks further slowing down the transition. Long permitting processes, high capital expenditure and uncertainty around demand make it difficult, in the short term, to support the deployment of entirely new networks. In this context, repurposing existing infrastructure emerges as a strategic lever to accelerate system development.

One of the most relevant areas is gas networks. In Europe, an extensive pipeline infrastructure already exists which, in some cases, can be adapted to transport hydrogen or hydrogen–natural gas blends. According to the European Commission, a significant share of the future European hydrogen network — the so-called “Hydrogen Backbone” — could be based on the conversion of existing gas pipelines, with clear advantages in terms of cost and implementation timelines.

However, repurposing is not without challenges. Hydrogen interacts with materials differently from natural gas and can lead to phenomena such as metal embrittlement, requiring thorough technical assessments and, in some cases, the replacement of components.

Beyond pipelines, ports, terminals and industrial hubs also play a key role. These infrastructure nodes, already central to energy and logistics flows, can be transformed into entry, conversion and distribution points for hydrogen and its derivatives. In particular, ports are becoming strategic interfaces between production and consumption, especially in the context of future global supply chains based on liquid hydrogen or carriers such as ammonia and methanol.

From this perspective, repurposing is not merely a technical solution but a strategic choice. It enables a bridge between the current energy system and the future one, optimising existing assets while reducing the risk of stranded investments.