Europe's third big hydrogen project calls for 3.2 GW electrolyzers, 2,700 km T&D network

The European Commission announced its approval for "IPCEI Hy2Infra", a joint a joint effort by seven EU countries to support the continent's hydrogen infrastructure and boost its supply of green hydrogen.

Seven countries — France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Slovakia — will provide up to €6.9 billion in public funding, which is expected to unlock a further €5.4 billion in private investments, the Commission noted.

The project, the third under the Important Project of Common European Interest ('IPCEI') norms, will help Europe achieve objectives laid out in the European Green Deal and the REPowerEU Plan, while reducing dependency on natural gas. 

In its release, the Commission noted that IPCEI Hy2Infra would cover a wide part of the hydrogen value chain by supporting:

• the deployment of 3.2 GW of large-scale electrolyzers to produce renewable hydrogen;
• the deployment of new and repurposed hydrogen transmission and distribution pipelines of approximately 2,700 km;
• the development of large-scale hydrogen storage facilities with capacity of at least 370 GWh; and
• the construction of handling terminals and related port infrastructure for liquid organic hydrogen carriers ('LOHC') to handle 6,000 tonnes of hydrogen a year.

The project will see some 32 companies, including small and medium-sized enterprises, participate in 33 projects across the seven countries. The workstreams are as below: 

Commenting on the approval, Thierry Breton, the EU Commissioner for the Internal Market said: "For a successful roll-out of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen, all pieces of the puzzle need to come together. With this new Important Project of Common European Interest, 32 companies, including 5 SMEs, will invest in hydrogen infrastructure, for a total of more than 12 billion euro of private and public investment, to match supply and demand of hydrogen. It provides industries with more options to decarbonize their activities while boosting their competitiveness and creating jobs."