Hydrogen is not a bubble

Earlier this year, Norwegian Minister of Finance Jens Stoltenberg compared elements of the green transition, namely offshore wind and #hydrogen, to the dot-com bubble bursting in 2000. In response, HYDROGENi Director Nils Røkke (SINTEF) and HyValue Director Arvid Nøttveit co-authored a response, where they pointed out that, unlike many dot-com companies in 2000, the players in the current hydrogen market have products, customers and export revenues. They are built on solid engineering, not lofty visions. To demonstrate this, Nils and Arvid held a webinar on 14 October 2025, where they presented results from both HYDROGENi and HyValue so far. Both research centres facilitate close cooperation between universities, research institutes and industry actors, to develop the technologies and solutions needed to build hydrogen value chains in Norway. It is true that hydrogen is not a miracle solution, but it is a crucial piece of the puzzle to reach our climate goals – particularly in sectors where electrification is difficult, such as heavy transport, the maritime sector and industry. Hydrogen production from electrolysis can utilise surplus energy from renewable power generation (“green hydrogen”), but we can also produce hydrogen from natural gas while capturing and storing CO2 from the process (“blue hydrogen”). The world needs both solutions, as the real bubbles that are about to burst are the climate and nature crises. HYDROGENi and HyValue are Centres for Environment-friendly Energy Research (FME), funded by the Research Council of Norway and their industry partners. HYDROGENi is coordinated by SINTEF Energy Research in Trondheim, while HyValue is coordinated by NORCE in Bergen. Both Centres focus on facilitating the establishment of a sustainable hydrogen economy in Norway, through close collaboration between research and industry actors.