Today’s world feels like we are sitting on the edge of quite a few things that are about to reshape either our understanding of, or our way of interacting with, life. We have AI, quantum computing, space travel, and then there’s energy, which determines the pace of all the former progress.
One energy source, namely hydrogen, is not new in terms of our realisation of its potential or our attempts to harness it. However, it seems to be an “almost there” solution at present with a couple of final hurdles still yet to be ironed out, so to speak.
The most common term heard surrounding hydrogen these days is “Green Hydrogen,” which is green because it’s sustainable, not because it’s a weird St Patrick’s Day variant of the gas. The problem with Green Hydrogen, however, is that to get it, massive amounts of energy are needed in the production process (electrolysis). We shouldn’t mistake this as “bad”, it’s just an expensive process that consumes energy to produce energy. The benefits of hydrogen are that it is theoretically abundant and, in current power conversion models, gives off very little pollution vs oil (yay trees!). What remains as a challenge is that whilst this is supposedly abundant, we have not yet managed to realise that abundance effectively.
Enter France
In the Lorraine Basin, Northeastern France, scientists were busying themselves monitoring methane levels in an old coal basin. In between their coffee and croissants, they noticed something odd: hydrogen, where it shouldn’t be. Naturally, they looked into this odd reading as scientists do, tapping their equipment like old 80s TVs with a bad signal (I’m assuming).
What their equipment began to tell them was increasingly good news. On the surface, hydrogen levels were less than 0.1%. However, deeper probes indicated linear increases in concentration as depth increased. At a depth of 1,250m, hydrogen was at 20% concentration, and projections suggest that at 3,000m-ish, it could be more than 90%. What this proved was that the hydrogen was coming from a deep, active source and not simply leaking from the surface level.
Ok, enough of the chemistry/geology lesson. Exactly why this is significant is that when we compare this to oil deposits, which are limited and based on dead dinosaur feet, this hydrogen is “abiotic.” Deep underground, water is reacting with iron minerals, essentially the Earth is “rusting” at a planetary scale. This means instead of tapping a fixed amount of oil, the Earth is playing the part of a chemical reactor and churning this stuff out, possibly endlessly (like an old roommate of mine with methane).
The Economics
Okay, so it’s an untapped source, big deal, right? Well, yes, it is a big deal, and for France, it could be a very lucrative one. You see, the cost of producing Green Hydrogen currently comes in at around $5-8/kg, whereas this “White” hydrogen could be as little as $1/kg.
The sheer size of this discovery is estimated to be around 46 million tons. If proven, that equals roughly half of the world’s current annual hydrogen production alone.
Goodbye Russian Oil Reliance
For France and her European neighbours, this could mean energy independence from imported gas and potential exports further afield. Interestingly, France already updated its mining code back in 2022 to classify natural hydrogen as a state resource, allowing for exclusive exploration permits to be issued.
Already, La Française de l’Energie (FDE), the primary commercial entity involved, is looking at ways to commercialise this discovery. This isn’t just theory anymore; the PTH-2 deep well began drilling operations in late 2025 to prove the reserves are real. Along with state regulators and the CNRS/University of Lorraine, the group is working hard to establish the best solution for harvesting the gas efficiently.
There are some challenges remaining, such as how to best separate the hydrogen from the methane that currently exists alongside it deep down. However, the mix is actually chemically similar to the “Town Gas” that lit up 19th-century streets, so we already have established methods to separate or burn it.
Ultimately, this might be a very big step for humanity and its previous attempts to move away from fossil fuels. In the future, other deposits may well (pun intended) be found just like this one. The potential for the global energy landscape to transform away from polluting hydrocarbons is nearing closer, and this discovery was a giant leap toward that goal.
The goldilocks of energy, clean, cheap, and abundant, might just be upon us.