Clean Hydrogen Partnership to fund nine hydrogen valleys projects
February 6, 2023The projects will now begin negotiations for grant agreements.
The Clean Hydrogen Partnership, under the Horizon Europe Programme, has announced it is investing €105.4 million ($114.45 million) for funding nine hydrogen valleys across Europe, and negotiations for the grant agreements for these projects have begun and are expected to conclude before summer 2023.
The projects focus on the production of green hydrogen.
The hydrogen valleys projects will focus on the production of clean hydrogen, address various applications in energy, transport and industry sectors, and are expected to mobilize investments of a minimum of five times the funding provided by the European Union or above €500 million ($541.17 million).
Additionally, the European Commission allocated an extra €200 million ($216.47 million) to the Clean Hydrogen Partnership via REPowerEU to further benefit the hydrogen valleys.
A public-private partnership supporting research and innovation activities in H2 technologies in Europe under the Horizon Europe Programme, The Clean Hydrogen Partnership has multiple members, including the European Commission, Hydrogen Europe (representing hydrogen industries), and Hydrogen Europe Research (representing the research community).
The Clean Hydrogen Partnership has already started the grant process for two flagship hydrogen valleys.
The first of these valleys will be spread across the North Adriatic region. This comprises Slovenia, Croatia, and the Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia in Italy. The goal of the second valley is to build a hydrogen corridor across Estonia, South Finland and other Baltic Sea countries. Beyond these, seven smaller-scale H2 valleys projects have been planned for areas of Europe that have no or a limited presence of these valleys, such as regions in Ireland, Luxembourg, Turkey, Italy, Greece, and Bulgaria.
Hydrogen valleys are regional ecosystem that link hydrogen production, hydrogen transportation, and a variety of end uses like industrial feedstock or mobility. According to the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, the H2 valleys concept is one of the main priorities of industry and the European Commission for scaling-up H2 deployments and establishing interconnected hydrogen ecosystems throughout Europe.
“These nine valleys will be planting the seeds of the envisioned hydrogen economy, incubating hydrogen valley hubs simultaneously at several EU MS, interconnecting and transitioning them into a growth value chain at scale,” Said, Melyssa Verykios, Chair of the Governing Board of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership.
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Great to see the nine hydrogen valley projects moving forward in Europe. Looking forward to hearing EIon Musk’s thoughts on an energy sustainable world. Couldn’t imagine lithium providing a sustainable energy solution and replacement for gasoline. A quick look at present climate conditions in Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, USA, China and the few other countries that require water to mine the world largest lithium reserves merits concern. Climate change is causing sever droughts in these locations. This concern was addressed and discussed in emails sent a decade ago. Fortunately, hydrogen and sodium-sulfur batteries produced from seawater now offers a better path forward for energy sustainability and a solution for climate change also discussed. My thoughts on a sustainable energy world, Elon Musk might consider using sodium-sulfur batteries and hydrogen fuel cells both in EVs and for grid storage. Hydrogen and sodium-sulfur batteries are the replacement for natural gas, oil and lithium in a sustainable energy world.
I am a 72 year old grandmother and I have been believing in Hydrogen as the way of the future sense the early 2000. I have said for years I refuse to buy a battery car I am waiting for the Hydrogen car. I am so happy to see auto manufactures are starting to get on board.
Good intent Nanette. I am a 66 yr old grandfather and are just as convinced as you that Hydrogen is the correct way to a sustainable power grid. I have been invested in Fuel cells since 2000. They are not “Fool” cells. Solely battery powered devices have limited potential. I owned a 2001 1st generation Prius for 8 years and loved it.