Working with the regions

Support for research and Innovation under the first FCH Joint Undertaking (2008-2013) was essential to the development of fuel cells and hydrogen-based applications. As these technologies matured, the FCH 2 JU (2014-2020) started to support the demonstration of energy and transport applications at large scale (fleets of buses, domestic heat and power systems, garbage trucks, etc). In parallel, hydrogen production technologies, and in particular the production of hydrogen through the electrolysis of water using renewable electricity, advanced significantly, with production capacities increasing in the last 10 years from several hundred kWs to multi-MW scale plants.  

As hydrogen technologies matured, since 2016, the JU undertook significant efforts to reach out to all those European regions and cities having an interest in the potential use of fuel cell and hydrogen-based solutions to help them achieve their decarbonisation goals. As a result, the JU launched the FCH-Regions Initiative to support regions across Europe in assessing the business cases for fuel cell and hydrogen applications and in mapping their local capabilities so that they can be exploited in the future. This initiative attracted 89 European regions and cities from 22 European countries which were actively working to shape their green energy transitions with hydrogen and fuel cells. As part of the FCH-Regions initiative, the JU study on Fuel cells and hydrogen for green energy in European cities and regions, published in 2018, identified project implementation intentions in excess of EUR 1.8 billion over a 5-year period. Since then, the JU has been working closely with regions to realise this potential, while continuing to support R&I to improve the performance and reduce the cost of clean hydrogen technologies across the whole value chain. The period following the end of the FCH-Regions Initiative and building on the momentum it created, saw the launch in May 2019 of the European Hydrogen Valleys Partnership (EHV-S3P) under the Smart Specialisation Platform. The EHV-S3P aims at facilitating exchanges of knowledge and practices between regions, strengthening the European hydrogen value chain and promoting the concept of hydrogen valleys.

For regions and cities willing to get familiar with hydrogen technologies as well as on how they can help to decarbonise their territories, the FCH-Regions initiative provide a series of technology dossiers and preliminary business cases. 
 

Against the above backdrop, since 2015, when the JU launched for the first time a call to support a first Hydrogen Valley (referred to at the time as a Hydrogen Territory), the hydrogen valley concept has gained traction among the hydrogen community. Projects such as BIG HIT (Call 2015), HEAVENN (Call 2019) and Green Hysland (Call 2020) have become pioneers and flagships of this concept. 
Hydrogen Valleys are hydrogen ecosystems that cover a specific geography ranging from local or regional focus (e.g. industrial cluster, ports, airports, etc.) to specific national or international regions (e.g. cross border hydrogen corridors). Hydrogen Valleys showcase the versatility of hydrogen by supplying several sectors in their geography such as mobility, industry and energy end uses. They are ecosystems or clusters where various final applications share a common hydrogen supply infrastructure. Across their geographic scope,

Hydrogen Valleys cover multiple steps in the hydrogen value chain, ranging from hydrogen production (and often even dedicated renewables production) to the subsequent storage of hydrogen and distribution to off-takers.

Text version

With the above in mind, and in view of setting up a more structured cooperation mechanism between the JU and Managing Authorities of Member States and Regions, the JU awarded a contract with a view to identify and design a structured approach to generate and implement synergies on research and innovation activities between the Clean Hydrogen JU and managing authorities of Member States and Regions. 

In 2023, after an exercise to understand the state of the art on the Hydrogen R&I policies of the Member States and third countries associated with Horizon Europe, a Call for Expression of Interest was launched to select 10 regional or national Managing Authorities (MA) to foster a structured cooperation with the JU tailored to the needs of each MA. A meeting with the selected MAs took place during the 2023 edition of the Hydrogen Week. Following this, the work to develop the Memoranda of Cooperation (MoC) started. The signing of the MoC is planned for Q2 2024.

The Clean Hydrogen Partnership has launched a call for tenders for a “Hydrogen Valleys Facility”. The facility aims at accelerating the number of hydrogen valleys in Europe by continuing to provide technical, financial and legal support through dedicated Project Development Assistance (PDA) to project promoters. These can be both public and private entities,  aiming to develop hydrogen valleys projects. The objective is to help valleys develop a plan to get through their pre-feasibility stage to final investment decision.

The tender, with a budget of EUR 12.5 billion has been published by the partnership on 25 June 2024, following the first edition of the Hydrogen Valleys days. More information can be found here: https://www.clean-hydrogen.europa.eu/apply-funding/procurements_en