In this study, we investigate the economic, environmental and social impacts of various hydrogen production methods, based on fossil fuel and renewable energy resources with a special emphasis on hybrid photoelectrochemical systems perform comparative assessments of these methods for applications. The sources considered for hydrogen production in this study are water, fossil hydrocarbons, and biomass. Furthermore, the primary energy sources considered in this study are natural gas, coal, biomass, wind and solar. In order to address sustainability, the relationship between efficiency and environmental impact is also investigated. The results show that solar based hydrogen production options (photocatalysis, photoelectrolysis, and photoelectrochemical methods) provide near zero global warming potentials and air pollutants, while coal gasification has the highest ones. In regards to the exergy efficiencies, biomass gasification gives the highest exergy efficiency, while photoelectrochemical method ends up with the lowest one. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.