Hydrogen and heavy climate hardware move from slideware to hard selection in Europe.
Benjamin Deplus, Partner France
On slides, hydrogen has been “the future” for a long time. Most climate decks had an electrolyser, a pipeline and a green molecule somewhere in the corner. In practice, a lot of the capital and talent went into software, offsets and light-touch climate tools, while big industrial projects stayed in pilot mode.
That gap is now being tested for real. Installed water-electrolyser capacity worldwide has jumped from low single-digit gigawatts to several gigawatts in just a few years, with China racing ahead but Europe building serious manufacturing capacity of its own. European electrolyser factories are on track for close to 9 GW per year of output, with several gigawatts already under construction and due online before 2030. Industrial groups are committing billions of euros to large-scale projects tied to refineries, chemicals and heavy mobility.
At the same time, climate capital has become more selective. Global climate tech funding has come off the peak, but Europe still attracts a disproportionate share, and a growing slice of that capital is flowing into projects with clear offtake, credible partners and bankable engineering rather than “platform” stories with vague end markets. The next phase is less about announcing 60 GW of 2030 capacity and more about which early projects actually hit their technical and commercial milestones. A lot of hardware dreams will quietly stall; a smaller group of integrated projects, generation, conversion, storage and industrial use, will earn the right to scale.In particular, we expect 2026 to see accelerated demand for:
Where I think the interesting work is in 2026:
- Integrated green-hydrogen hubs that co-locate renewables, electrolysers and anchor industrial loads, with contracts that make both the physics and the financing work.
- Control and optimisation layers that keep electrolysers, storage and flexible loads running at high utilisation, respecting grid constraints and price signals instead of operating in isolation.
- Climate platforms that bundle hardware, software and structured finance so mid-market industrials and logistics operators can adopt low-carbon fuels without blowing up their balance sheet or their operations team.
In 2026, we’ll move beyond treating hydrogen as a nice diagram in a strategy report. The companies that matter will be the ones switching on real megawatts, locking in long-term offtake and surviving the first serious round of technical and commercial selection.
European ClimateTech moves from feel-good pilots to asset-backed infrastructure in energy, farming and construction.
Ben Marrel, Co-founder & CEO
For a long time, ClimateTech in Europe sat comfortably at the edge of the system. Corporates ran offsets, dashboards and pilots that looked great in ESG reports. Startups built tools to measure emissions and assumed someone else would handle the concrete, the turbines and the pipes.
That phase is ending. Energy-related startups already take roughly 35% of global climate tech funding, up from about 30% the year before, as investors accept that decarbonisation means building and owning assets, not just monitoring them. In Europe, ClimateTech companies raised around €25bn in disclosed debt in 2024 alone, often larger than their equity rounds and a clear sign that project finance and venture now sit side by side in this category. At the same time, extreme weather and political wobbling on climate budgets are making it obvious that public money cannot underwrite the full transition. “Being green” is no longer a sufficient pitch: buyers want a defensible business case, with hard savings or new revenues that show up in the P&L, not just a nicer sustainability slide.
The winning founders are the ones who make low-carbon energy, materials and farming not just cleaner, but cheaper and more reliable than the status quo. Their products are bought by CFOs and operations teams because they improve unit economics, hedge volatility or unlock new profit pools – and the emissions reduction is a co-benefit, not the only selling point.
What institutions will still be signing contracts for in 2026:
- Grid-scale storage and flexibility systems that turn cheap but badly timed renewables into firm power for industry, with clear payback periods and pricing structures that de-risk energy costs, not just home batteries.
- Farm-level platforms that combine agronomy, hardware and finance so farmers can use less water and fewer inputs while still protecting yields and margins in a volatile climate.
- Low-carbon construction materials and retrofit solutions that plug straight into existing procurement, meet code, and deliver lower lifetime cost of ownership rather than asking developers to pay a “green premium”.
In Europe, climate tools that only tell you how big the problem is will drift into discretionary budgets. The centre of gravity is shifting decisively towards solutions that cut emissions and operating costs at the same time, and that is where we will see the most durable companies emerge.
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