The hydrogen economy is being accelerated thanks to the REPowerEU Plan, an additional investment of 200 million euros available to the Clean Hydrogen Partnership through the Horizon Europe Program.
The funds will help double the number of hydrogen valleys in Europe and aim to accelerate the deployment of the hydrogen economy across the EU.
REPowerEU is the EU’s plan to rapidly reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels and accelerate the ecological transition. Renewable hydrogen will be key to replacing natural gas, coal and oil in hard-to-decarbonize industries and transport. Among others, REPowerEU sets a target of 10 million tons of domestic renewable hydrogen production and 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen imports by 2030.
RePowerEU also announced future measures to develop skills for the hydrogen economy through ERASMUS+ and Clean Hydrogen Partnership, through a specific project.
Bart Biebuyck, executive director of Clean Hydrogen Partnership, said, “We warmly welcome the European Commission’s communication on REPowerEU, which strengthens the role of clean hydrogen in the energy transition and boosts the development of hydrogen valleys across Europe. We appreciate the Commission’s confidence in our Partnership in complementing our program and are fully committed to accelerating the implementation of the hydrogen economy.”
Hydrogen valleys, regional ecosystems linking hydrogen production, transport and various end uses, such as mobility or industrial feedstock, are important steps to enable the development of a new and sustainable hydrogen economy. Currently, 23 European hydrogen valleys at different stages of development have been identified in the Mission Innovation Hydrogen Valleys Platform, developed for the Clean Hydrogen Partnership (and its predecessor, FCH JU). The Platform is now entering its second stage of development.
The Foundation in the hydrogen valleys
Our GREEN HYSLAND project aims to deploy a hydrogen (H2) ecosystem encompassing its entire value chain in Mallorca (Spain), making the island the first H2 hub in Southwest Europe.
The project develops the necessary infrastructures for the production of green hydrogen from solar energy and its distribution to end users, such as the tourism, transport, industrial and energy sectors of the island, including injection into the gas grid for the subsequent generation of heat and green energy in those end uses that require it.
The project will also develop a Roadmap for 2050 that establishes a long-term vision for the development of a widespread H2 economy in Mallorca and extensible to the Balearic Islands as a whole, in line with environmental objectives.
Source: European Commission/Newsroom
