As the world accelerates its decarbonization plans, renewable hydrogen and its derivatives offer a promising alternative to fossil fuels—but to date, there are still no gigascale renewable hydrogen production plants in operation (see sidebar “Renewable hydrogen and its derivatives”).

The demand for clean hydrogen is expected to increase significantly. New plants could be scaled to meet this growing demand, which could require investments of $700 billion to maintain the 2030 net-zero trajectory.¹

Currently, hydrogen demand is driven largely by the fertilizer and refining industries. The majority of hydrogen produced is grey hydrogen and, to a lesser degree, blue.² To support net-zero ambitions, developers and investors could use a trusted technical and financial blueprint that quantifies risk and may accelerate the scale-up of green hydrogen plants. Digital twins—which can simulate a physical plant from the planning stage before it is built to the end of its lifetime—could help reduce the risks of investment, save costs, and speed up project timelines.

In this article, we highlight the obstacles preventing the build-out of large-scale renewable hydrogen production plants and explore how developers could overcome—or at least help to address—these challenges by using digital twins.