Accord­ing to the report, the elec­trolyz­er mar­ket is still grow­ing, but the expan­sion is occur­ring more slow­ly than ear­li­er ambi­tions sug­gest­ed. For Europe to reach its cli­mate goals and meet the reg­u­la­to­ry-dri­ven demand for green hydro­gen, invest­ment deci­sions cor­re­spond­ing to approx­i­mate­ly 25–30 GW of new elec­trolyz­er capac­i­ty are required with­in the next few years.

PEM takes a leading role in Europe

The report also states that PEM elec­trol­y­sis now accounts for approx­i­mate­ly 62 per­cent of Europe’s oper­a­tional elec­trol­y­sis capac­i­ty. This demon­strates that the tech­nol­o­gy holds a strong posi­tion in the Euro­pean mar­ket and plays a cen­tral role in many of the facil­i­ties cur­rent­ly in operation.

For the indus­try, this means the focus is shift­ing increas­ing­ly from the choice of tech­nol­o­gy toward per­for­mance improve­ments. As the mar­ket grows, there is an expand­ing need for solu­tions that can enhance ener­gy effi­cien­cy, reduce mate­r­i­al con­sump­tion, and low­er the cost of hydro­gen production.

“The report con­firms the long-term mar­ket poten­tial for PEM elec­trol­y­sis in Europe. At the same time, we see that the next phase of growth will be dri­ven by tech­ni­cal improve­ments that make elec­trolyz­ers both more resource-effi­cient and more cost-effec­tive. This rein­forces the rel­e­vance of the PTE tech­nol­o­gy we are devel­op­ing to reduce the use of crit­i­cal mate­ri­als in PEM sys­tems.”
Fabi­an Wenger, Head of Tech­nol­o­gy, Smoltek Hydrogen

The next growth phase brings higher demands

The major chal­lenge for the indus­try is no longer just about build­ing more elec­trolyz­ers; it is equal­ly impor­tant to make them more competitive.

As invest­ments in tens of gigawatts of new capac­i­ty are real­ized, even minor effi­cien­cy improve­ments become eco­nom­i­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant. For elec­trolyz­er man­u­fac­tur­ers, the goal is to gen­er­ate more hydro­gen per installed facil­i­ty while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly reduc­ing reliance on expen­sive and crit­i­cal materials.

This is where inno­va­tion in elec­trode cells and cell com­po­nents is becom­ing increas­ing­ly important.

Smoltek Hydrogen’s role in this development

Smoltek Hydro­gen is devel­op­ing tech­nol­o­gy that address­es some of the most fun­da­men­tal chal­lenges fac­ing the PEM indus­try. Through our nanos­truc­ture-based elec­trode tech­nol­o­gy, PTE, the goal is to increase the elec­trode sur­face area and improve the uti­liza­tion of iridium—one of the most crit­i­cal and cost­ly raw mate­ri­als used in PEM electrolyzers.

As the mar­ket moves toward large-scale deploy­ment, the abil­i­ty to reduce mate­r­i­al con­sump­tion while main­tain­ing or enhanc­ing per­for­mance is becom­ing increas­ing­ly impor­tant. If Europe is to build the exten­sive elec­trolyz­er capac­i­ty required, tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ments that improve resource effi­cien­cy will be a key part of the solution.

From market growth to market maturity

The over­ar­ch­ing mes­sage of the report, Clean Hydro­gen Mon­i­tor 2026, is that the Euro­pean hydro­gen mar­ket con­tin­ues to advance, even though the pace of growth has slowed com­pared to ear­li­er expec­ta­tions. At the same time, the strong posi­tion of PEM tech­nol­o­gy demon­strates that it is already play­ing a key role in the ener­gy transition.

For Smoltek Hydro­gen, these devel­op­ments con­firm that the market’s needs go beyond sim­ply hav­ing more elec­trolyz­ers; there is also a demand for bet­ter elec­trolyz­ers. As the indus­try scales up, inno­va­tions that boost effi­cien­cy and reduce the use of crit­i­cal mate­ri­als will be essen­tial to mak­ing green hydro­gen both sus­tain­able and competitive.

---

Read the full report from Hydro­gen Europe: Clean Hydro­gen Mon­i­tor 2026