Jakarta, October 13, 2025 – Green hydrogen is a potential solution in the global energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. However, green hydrogen is not yet widely used worldwide due to its limited production. Fabby Tumiwa, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), explained that of the total global hydrogen production, which is expected to reach approximately 97 million tons by 2024, only around 1 million tons, or 1 percent, will come from green hydrogen. This figure shows how small the portion of green hydrogen is compared to other forms of hydrogen.
According to Tumiwa, there are several main factors contributing to this. First, production costs are still high. Second, green hydrogen production facilities are still limited.
“Currently, the most widely used technology in industry is the technology for producing gray hydrogen, which is hydrogen produced from the processing of fossil fuels, particularly natural gas. This technology has been in use for a long time and has become the backbone of various industrial sectors, such as the fertilizer and ammonia industries, which rely on natural gas as a raw material,” Fabby emphasized at the Big IDEA Forum by CNN Indonesia and the Indonesia Energy Transition Dialogue (IETD) 2025, supported by IESR through the Green Energy Transition Indonesia (GETI) program in collaboration with the British Embassy in Jakarta, which aired on Friday (10/10).
However, Fabby said, the emerging climate crisis has forced the world to seek cleaner and more sustainable energy solutions. This is where green hydrogen is starting to be recognized as an important alternative for the future. The challenge now is how to make green hydrogen more affordable.
“The price of green hydrogen depends on three main factors, the most influential being the price of electricity. Calculating, if the price of electricity from renewable energy can be below 4 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), then the production cost of green hydrogen can be equivalent to that of gray hydrogen. In fact, if it can drop to 3 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh), green hydrogen will become much more competitive,” said Fabby.