This paper gives an overview of the potential on multi-criteria assessment of hydrogen systems. With respective selection of the criteria comprising performance, environment, market and social indicators the assessment procedure is adapted for the assessment of the selected options of the hydrogen energy systems and their comparison with new and renewable energy systems. The single parameter assessment for each indicator is demonstrated as the traditional approach in the evaluation of the option under consideration which reflects a biased result depending on the selected indicator. In order to apply the multi-criteria approach to the hydrogen systems, it was necessary to use the multi-criteria procedure based on the sustainability index rating composed of linear aggregative functions of all indicators with respective weighting function. The example under consideration are hydrogen fuel cell systems with three options including natural gas turbine, photovoltaic and wind energy systems representing different renewable power plant option. These options are evaluated with the multi-criteria method comprising the following indicators: performance indicator, market indicator, environment indicator and social indicator. The indicators are composed of a number of sub-indicators agglomerated in respective indicators. The evaluation of options under consideration was performed under constraint expressing non-numeric relation among the indicators. The group comprises cases when priority is given to a single indicator and other indicators have the same value. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy.