Hydrogen’s Real-World Wins — Ohio, Denmark & Solar-Powered Drones Leading the Way

In this episode of The Hydrogen Podcast, Paul Rodden highlights three powerful stories proving that hydrogen’s progress is driven by innovation, economics, and real-world execution. From the U.S. Midwest to Northern Europe to high-tech drone applications, the hydrogen industry is showing tangible momentum.

🇺🇸 Ohio’s Hydrogen Grit Even as federal hydrogen funding faces political turbulence, Ohio’s hydrogen economy keeps expanding. At the Ohio Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Coalition, Bill Whittenberger made it clear: “We’re building businesses in this state regardless.” Key players include:

• American Electric Power (AEP) partnering with Bloom Energy for 1 GW of fuel cells to power data centers.
• Honda continuing its Marysville fuel cell vehicle production and exploring hydrogen’s role in shipping and aviation.
• Independence Hydrogen leveraging industrial byproducts from INEOS for hydrogen purification and compression. Ohio’s story shows hydrogen’s business case is alive—rooted in industrial resilience, local demand, and speed to market.

🇩🇰 Denmark’s HySynergy Plant – A European Milestone Europe’s hydrogen ambitions are moving from theory to practice. The HySynergy project in Fredericia—powered entirely by solar and wind—now produces eight tonnes of hydrogen daily. This 20 MW facility, operated by Everfuel, links hydrogen directly to refinery operations and cross-border exports to Germany. Though delayed and still challenged by high electricity costs, HySynergy proves scalability is within reach. CEO Jakob Korsgaard urges strong implementation of the EU RED III directive to hit Europe’s 2030 renewables targets. The result: a genuine step toward low-carbon hydrogen at commercial scale.

🚀 Solar Hydrogen Nanogrids – Powering Drones and Beyond Michigan-based Sesame Solar has unveiled a game-changing solar-hydrogen nanogrid, capable of generating hydrogen on-site—anywhere, anytime. How it works:

• Draws water from the air.
• Uses solar power for electrolysis.
• Stores hydrogen safely in metal hydrides, enabling months-long storage. This portable nanogrid powers long-endurance drones like Heven AeroTech’s Z1, supporting missions for defense, disaster response, and remote industries. No fuel deliveries. No diesel logistics. Just clean, deployable hydrogen in minutes.

💡 The Bigger Picture: Hydrogen’s success depends on smart economics and flexible deployment.

• Ohio demonstrates bottom-up market resilience.
• Denmark proves policy-driven scale-up is achievable.
• Sesame Solar shows innovation can bypass infrastructure bottlenecks.

From heavy industry to autonomous tech, hydrogen’s value is being earned through performance, not promises.

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