It’s fair to say that some of the early, heady excitement around hydrogen has dissipated, with plenty of concern around how many and how quickly projects are being built.

Seemingly undeterred by any negativity, French developer Lhyfe has now “kicked off construction of its fifth green hydrogen plant”.

This will “supply up to two tonnes of hydrogen per day from 2026… to mobility applications” and is sited in “the Somme region of Hauts-de-France”. That makes it the firm’s first northern French plant, adding to three western region sites that are already producing and another, in the Auvergne, being built.

Perhaps Lhyfe provides an example of bigger not always being better (at least in terms of ability to progress quickly)? This new plant will be 5MW.

As well as the hydrogen it produces, the project business case will be helped by its role in “helping stabilise Hauts-de-France’s power grid, with the site able to modulate its electricity use according to wider power demand”.

At a bigger scale is a project in Norway, which has taken its final investment decision (FID). This is a “government-backed 20MW facility” which will “produce 3,100 tonnes of hydrogen a year in the first phase from 2026”.

The hydrogen will be supplied to “ferries operated by Torghatten Nord on the Vestfjorden route”. This “3.5-hour ferry route is the longest in Norway and a popular method of travel between mainland Norway and the Lofoten Islands”. By the time the hydrogen starts producing, Torghatten Nord is due to receive two ferries, “capable of carrying 120 cars and 599 passengers” and “designed to operate 85% of the time on renewable hydrogen and the rest of the time on biofuels”.

A number of factors will have contributed to the ability to reach this FID.

One is undoubtedly the receipt of “NKr129m ($11.5m) in funding from the country’s Ministry of Climate and Environment”. Subsidy aside, the project also has “proximity to local demand like the ferry operator Torghatten Nord, as well as access to cheap baseload renewable power”. Additional revenue might even come via the potential to “sell waste heat and oxygen to industries in the surrounding area”.

And, if all goes well, there is already talk of scaling up “in a second phase to 30MW, producing 4,800 tonnes of hydrogen per year”.

Bigger projects have been making investment decisions too.