GreenergyDaily

Feb. 11, 2026

Europe's fledgling green hydrogen industry is urging the EU to introduce "made in Europe" requirements for public spending on the sector, warning that without support to scale up quickly, domestic producers risk being overtaken by Chinese rivals.

Kim Hedegaard, CEO of Power-to-X at Danish engineering company Topsoe, told Reuters that manufacturers backed EU plans for "made in Europe" rules for publicly funded electrolyser purchases - pointing to solar panels as a cautionary tale if the industry fails to scale fast.

"You can use that as an example of what will happen to the European electrolyser industry if we don't do something different," Hedegaard said.

The European Commission plans this month to propose a law to prioritise European manufacturers in public procurement, aiming to tap the 2.5 trillion euros that EU public authorities spend each year on goods and services.

A draft of the proposals, previously reported by Reuters, included electrolysers. But the plans face pushback from some governments and firms, and officials are still haggling over which technologies to cover - and whether "made in Europe" should include non-EU countries such as Turkey.

Hakon Volldal, CEO of Norwegian electrolyser manufacturer Nel Hydrogen, said European firms were missing out on large-scale projects like those progressing in China, which public contracts could help secure.

"We have technology leadership, but unless we're able to deploy that technology and also learn with that technology, the Chinese will catch up, and they will race past us," he said.

"China is getting an edge ... because of the scale of their projects," said Nicolas de Coignac, CEO of the hydrogen arm of Belgian engineering group John Cockerill.