This Master's thesis aims to examine Canada's historical and contemporary attempts to establish a sustainable hydrogen market in Canada. Specifically, my research sought to answer whether hydrogen is poised to take off within the current hype cycle or will be stifled, such as in previous attempts. My research aimed to explore this question by examining and comparing historical and contemporary literature relevant to hydrogen development in Canada. My research utilized an ESPELT analysis and involved interviewing multiple experts from across the country to reveal any nuances that underline the barriers and opportunities for determining the viability of Canada's domestic hydrogen market within the contemporary context.

This thesis studies preconditions for clean hydrogen energy deployment in energy systems of Spain, Sweden, The UK, and China, considering these countries' geographical, political, and economic peculiarities. Countries' readiness for hydrogen energy uptake assessment is based on a comprehensive analysis of energy systems in selected countries by taking an integrated whole-system approach analyzing hydrogen supply in different infrastructure configurations as well as hydrogen transportation and storage and hydrogen use in the energy ecosystem. The readiness index of each country is evaluated in technological, political, societal, and economic dimensions, which are interdependent and influence not only each other, but the entire outcome of the energy transition phenomena studied in this thesis. The analysis concludes that the political dimension is the dominant one, as the government has the power to steer finance toward a green transition, making the desired change, such as clean hydrogen energy industry formation in the country, happen. Current energy transition entails economic and institutional change and deep industrial restructuring, all of which require specific policy instruments and conditionalities, balancing risks and behaviours in the process of the energy transition. Based on the results of this study, the UK and China have the highest political readiness among the analyzed countries, which also results in their higher economic, technology, and societal readiness levels.