Clean Hydrogen Investment Passes $130 Billion: Why Solar Fuels Research Is Now Infrastructure Strategy
On 10 September 2026, the Hydrogen Council and McKinsey & Company released the Global Hydrogen Compass 2026, reporting that committed investment in clean hydrogen has passed USD 130 billion, with 570 projects worldwide and 90% of them already under construction or operating. Capacity under construction has nearly doubled in twelve months, and the Council's CEO expects it to double again in 2027. China now holds more than half of committed global renewable hydrogen capacity, Europe leads on project count with 35% investment growth since 2025, and existing enacted policy alone could unlock 6 million tonnes per year of clean hydrogen demand by 2030. Solar-driven hydrogen has gone from a laboratory concept to a line item in national energy security strategy in the space of a few years.
Solar Fuels: Technologies and Applications for a Sustainable Energy Future (Wiley-VCH, 2026), a two-volume handbook edited by N. B. Singh, Md. Bin Hasan Susan, Aniruddha Mondal, and Ratiram G. Chaudhary, is built for exactly this moment: it connects the photochemistry and catalysis that make solar-to-hydrogen conversion possible to the grid, industrial, and policy questions that now decide which of those 570 projects actually reach operation.
Three applications the book develops track directly onto the Compass findings: Chapter 10's treatment of hydrogen from sunlight and solar water splitting, the core technology behind the 6.9 million tonnes per year of capacity currently under construction; Chapter 17's coverage of solar fuels for grid stability and storage, relevant as renewable hydrogen scales past half of China's committed capacity; and Chapter 19's review of policy incentives, directly addressing the gap the Council identifies between the 6 million tonnes backed by enacted policy and the 5 million tonnes still requiring "urgent action" from governments.
For science, engineering, and policy libraries, this is a rare single reference spanning both volumes of the hydrogen value chain — fundamental chemistry in Volume 1, economics and deployment in Volume 2 — making it well suited to collections serving energy policy researchers and materials scientists alike under one acquisition.
CLNZ Books sources direct from Wiley-VCH and ships worldwide with full institutional invoicing support, so acquisitions teams can add this two-volume set to a standing order without delays.
Q&A
Why has clean hydrogen investment accelerated so sharply in 2026?
The Hydrogen Council's September 2026 Global Hydrogen Compass attributes the jump past $130 billion in committed investment to rising energy security and resilience concerns, with 90% of 570 tracked projects already under construction or operating.
How is hydrogen produced using solar energy?
Chapter 10 of this book covers solar water splitting and photochemical pathways that use sunlight directly to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, the technology underlying most of the capacity now being built worldwide.
Are solar fuels cost-competitive with conventional fuels yet?
Chapter 18 presents direct cost comparisons, while Chapter 19 reviews the policy incentives needed to close the remaining gap identified in current industry reporting.
What role does artificial intelligence play in solar fuel development?
Chapter 22 reviews how AI is being used to accelerate materials discovery and optimize solar-to-fuel conversion efficiency.
Where can I buy Solar Fuels: Technologies and Applications for a Sustainable Energy Future?
Solar Fuels: Technologies and Applications for a Sustainable Energy Future is available now from CLNZ Books, with worldwide shipping included in the listed price and institutional invoicing available on request.