Nine hydrogen valleys will be funded across Europe by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership as part of the Horizon Europe Programme. Grant agreements for these projects are now being negotiated and should be finalised in the summer of 2023.
The hydrogen valleys projects will concentrate on producing clean hydrogen and address a variety of applications in the energy, transportation, and industrial sectors. It is anticipated that these projects will attract investments totaling at least €500 million ($541.17 million), or five times the funding provided by the European Union.
In order to help the hydrogen valleys even more, the European Commission added an additional €200 million ($216.47 million) to the Clean Hydrogen Partnership through REPowerEU.
The Clean Hydrogen Partnership is a public-private collaboration that supports research and innovation in H2 technologies in Europe under the Horizon Europe Program. Its members include the European Commission, Hydrogen Europe (which represents the hydrogen industries), and Hydrogen Europe Research (representing the research community).
The region surrounding the North Adriatic Sea will be home to the first of these valleys. Slovenia, Croatia, and the Italian Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia are included in this. Building a hydrogen corridor through Estonia, South Finland, and other Baltic Sea nations is the aim of the second valley. In addition to these, seven smaller-scale H2 valleys initiatives have been planned for places in Ireland, Luxembourg, Turkey, Italy, Greece, and Bulgaria that do not have any or only a small number of these valleys.
Regional ecosystems known as “hydrogen valleys” connect hydrogen generation, transportation, and a range of end users, such as industrial feedstock or mobility. In order to scale up H2 deployments and create interconnected hydrogen ecosystems across Europe, industry and the European Commission have prioritised the H2 valleys concept, according to the Clean Hydrogen Partnership.
