Every industry has its moments of silence—those odd, quiet stretches when the outside world assumes nothing is happening. But silence, as history has shown us, is often the sound of deep work. It is the moment before a scientific discovery, the breath before a musical crescendo, the pause before a leap forward. And in the case of OceanBlocks, the past six months have been precisely that: the quiet before movement.
It is easy to forget that energy transitions do not unfold like software updates—pushed overnight, globally, instantly. They emerge unevenly, hesitantly, with moments of acceleration and long plateaus of preparation. They are shaped not just by technologies or markets but by behaviours, institutions, political hesitations, and the stubborn geography of infrastructure. And so, while our public channels rested, our internal gears moved harder than they ever had.
This is the story of that silence.
And the story of a global transition that, much like us, has been working quietly beneath the surface.
1. The Strange Shape of Transitions
Transitions rarely look linear. They behave like tipping points, where the world shifts gradually and then all at once. The clean-energy transition is no different. For decades, it was a whisper in academic journals and environmental conferences. Then suddenly, over the past five years, it has become the central economic narrative of governments, industries, investors and global institutions.
Yet despite the noise, the numbers tell a different story. Only 13.5% of the low-emission technologies required to achieve a Paris-aligned pathway by 2050 have been deployed across key sectors such as power, industry, heavy transport, buildings and hydrogen (McKinsey, 2025). In other words, the hype far exceeds the hardware.
Likewise, the scale of investment remains staggering. To remain on track for net-zero, the world will require US$6.5 trillion per year through 2030, rising to US$8 trillion by 2035 (The Times 2025). These are not the budgets of incremental change; they are the budgets of reinvention.
And hydrogen—a centrepiece of our work—is emblematic of this pattern. The International Renewable Energy Agency (2024) estimates that global demand could reach 613 million tonnes by 2050, up from 87.1 million tonnes in 2020. But the infrastructure to meet that surge is not yet built. Today, global electrolyser capacity hovers only in the low single-digit gigawatts; to reach climate goals, the world must add 160 GW of new electrolyser installations every single year until 2050 (IRENA 2024).
It is an impossible task if viewed through the lens of today. But transitions never begin from today—they begin from the compounding work done in the quiet.
2. Why the Clean-Energy Transition Stalled Where It Did
Imagine you are trying to change not just a car but the entire road network, refuelling ecosystem, regulatory framework, and economic model around mobility. Now multiply that by electricity, industry, shipping, heating, logistics, agriculture and international trade. That is the clean-energy transition.
The bottlenecks are predictable once you understand the pattern:
A. Costs still tell the story
Grey hydrogen, the fossil-fuel version, remains cheap—US$1.50–2.50 per kg (Pires et al., 2025).
Blue hydrogen sits modestly higher at US$2.00–3.50 per kg.
Green hydrogen—despite dramatic cost declines—remains at US$3.50–6.00 per kg, depending on electricity costs (Sciencedirect, 2025).
Decarbonisation is not merely an engineering puzzle; it is a financial one.
B. Infrastructure has the inertia of continents
To ship hydrogen globally, the world must build pipelines, ammonia plants, shipping routes, reconversion terminals and storage facilities. The Hydrogen Council (2024) estimates that roughly 400 million tonnes of future hydrogen demand will need long-distance transport—nearly 190 million tonnes will cross borders.
Infrastructure is like culture: it changes, but slowly.
C. Policy must translate ambition into action
Most economies have national hydrogen strategies, but few have full alignment across carbon pricing, guarantees of origin, subsidies, permitting and industrial incentives (IRENA 2024). Policies remain patchwork.
The transition suffers not from too little talk, but from too little synchronisation.
D. Geography picks favourites
Regions blessed with sunlight, wind and land—North Africa, the Middle East, Australia—can produce green hydrogen cheaply.
Regions with gas and carbon-capture geology—like the US or the Gulf—can produce blue hydrogen at scale.
Europe, by contrast, has high demand but limited cheap renewable potential.
In other words, the transition is not evenly distributed.
Some will produce.
Some will consume.
Some will trade.
Understanding this map is the first step toward shaping the next energy system.
And it is precisely why OceanBlocks has been laying the groundwork across MENA and Europe.
3. What We Did in Our Silence
Silence, like the space between musical notes, is part of the composition.
The past six months have been defined by four deep-work streams that could not be rushed.
A. We anchored in the regions where the transition will start earliest
The Middle East—once defined solely by hydrocarbons—has quietly become one of the world’s most ambitious clean-energy investors. Governments across the Gulf are committing billions to hydrogen, solar, ammonia and industrial decarbonisation.
MENA countries are setting the pace:
- Saudi Arabia’s NEOM project includes one of the world’s largest green-hydrogen plants.
- The UAE’s updated energy strategy targets 1.4 Mt/year of hydrogen production capacity by 2031.
- Oman, Morocco and Egypt are building gigawatt-scale green-hydrogen zones with European offtakers already lined up.
These are not theoretical commitments—they are policy-backed investments, backed by sovereign wealth, industrial buyers and export agreements.
In parallel, Europe—home to some of the largest industrial consumers of clean hydrogen—has created enormous demand pull through its Fit-for-55 package, carbon border adjustment mechanisms, and national hydrogen quotas (Bundeswirtschaftsministerium, 2024).
We positioned ourselves in these corridors.
B. We solved the system design, not just the technology puzzle
Hydrogen is not a standalone solution; it is a system of systems:
- renewable power
- water/desalination
- electrolysis/pyrolysis
- storage and compression
- pipelines
- ammonia conversion
- industrial off-takes
We spent months building techno-economic models, cross-border supply-chain maps, and multi-scenario feasibility frameworks. We modelled CAPEX and OPEX under high-renewable, low-renewable, and mixed-energy scenarios. We simulated transport cost adders, reconversion efficiencies, and future carbon pricing sensitivities.
We built the things companies usually wait too long to build.
C. We secured partnerships that make hydrogen viable rather than theoretical
Technology alone cannot shift an economy.
Partnerships do.
OceanBlocks has been working directly with:
- government agencies
- industrial zones
- energy utilities
- shipping and port authorities
- policy units
- European demand-centres
- MENA energy producers
- financial institutions
- engineering and EPC partners
Hydrogen moves when these actors move together.
Our silence was the time needed to align them.
D. We waited until the story we told would be anchored in reality, not aspiration
Announcements are cheap; execution is expensive.
We wanted to speak only when speaking meant something.
Now it does.
4. What the World Will Look Like in 2026 and Beyond
The year 2026 marks the beginning of a new curve in the energy transition—one that economists describe as the “deployment S-curve”. It is the point at which cost declines, policy alignment, industrial learning and infrastructure expansion converge.
Three forces will define this era:
A. Hydrogen becomes competitively priced in specific geographies
McKinsey (2025) projects that green hydrogen could fall below US$2 2/kg by 2030 in regions with extremely low-cost renewable energy. Blue hydrogen may fall further as carbon-capture technology scales.
The cost race between green and blue will determine political choices.
B. Infrastructure begins its first real scaling phase
The Hydrogen Council timeline suggests:
- 2025: first major derivative shipping corridors
- 2030: Large-scale hydrogen pipeline networks begin operation
- 2040: cross-regional supply chains reach full industrial maturity
- 2050: global hydrogen markets become integrated
Infrastructure is destiny.
C. Governments start backing transition with money, not speeches
Just a short sample of real commitments:
- The EU’s Hydrogen Bank: €800 million initial fund, scaling to billions.
- Germany’s expected 95–130 TWh hydrogen demand by 2030, backed by subsidies (BMWK 2024).
- US Inflation Reduction Act: tax credits up to $3/kg for clean hydrogen.
- UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Morocco: billions committed to gigawatt-scale hydrogen zones.
- Japan and South Korea: hydrogen import strategies locked in through 2050.
This is no longer environmentalism.
It is an industrial policy.
5. Why This Moment Matters
Every transition has a window—an opening where early movers define the structure and late movers simply conform to it.
For the clean-energy transition, that window is the 2026–2031 period.
This is when:
- Cost curves bend
- Policy frameworks harden
- Supply chains are selected
- export corridors form
- First-mover advantage becomes a structural advantage
If you are there early, you help design the rules.
If you arrive late, the rules are already written.
OceanBlocks has chosen to arrive early.
6. The Risks We Prepared For
No transition worth pursuing is risk-free.
Regulatory risk
Policies shift, subsidies change, and carbon markets fluctuate.
We mitigate this by structuring our work with governments—not waiting for policy, but shaping it.
Infrastructure and logistics risk
Pipelines, terminals, and storage units have timelines measured in years.
We plan with EPC partners to reduce bottlenecks and leverage existing infrastructure where possible.
Cost-competitiveness risk
Electricity prices can rise. CAPEX may not fall as fast as forecast.
We diversify geographies and hybridise energy inputs.
Demand risk
Hydrogen depends on offtakers committing early.
We have targeted industries—steel, chemicals, shipping—that already face binding decarbonisation mandates.
Supply-chain risk
Electrolyser capacity and mineral supply chains are tight.
We partner early with suppliers and maintain multi-technology strategies.
What matters is not avoiding risk—but preparing intelligently for it.
That is what our silence allowed.
7. The Story Ahead
OceanBlocks is now entering a new phase.
Where the last six months were defined by quiet construction, the next twelve will be defined by visible execution.
We will be announcing partnerships, milestones, industrial frameworks, government collaborations, and cross-border clean-energy projects. We will be speaking more openly and more frequently—not because we must, but because we now have results, achievements and validated pathways to share.
The energy transition is no longer a distant concept.
It is here.
It is moving.
And we intend to help shape its architecture.
Our silence was preparation.
Our voice, now returning, is purpose.
Reference List
Bundeswirtschaftsministerium (2024) National Hydrogen Strategy – Germany. German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.
Hydrogen Council (2024). Optimising Global Hydrogen Trade Flows: Reducing Investment Costs by US$6 Trillion Across the Supply Chain, Hydrogen Council Report.
IRENA (2024) Policies for the Green Hydrogen Transition. International Renewable Energy Agency.
McKinsey & Company (2025). The Hard Stuff: Taking Stock of Progress on the Physical Challenges of the Energy Transition.
McKinsey & Company (2023). Global Energy Perspective – Hydrogen Outlook.
Pires, A. et al. (2025). Cost Analysis of Hydrogen Production Pathways, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy.
Sciencedirect (2025) Electrolyser Cost Reduction Pathways and the Future Cost Competitiveness of Green Hydrogen, Energy Conversion and Management.
The Times (2025) Net Zero by 2050 Struggles with Reality.