Hydrogen and electrolysers win big in EU’s €4.8bn Innovation Fund push

European clean hydrogen projects andelectrolyser manufacturing are being supported as part of a €4.8bn ($5.1bn)Innovation Fund push.

With 85 Net Zero projects selected intotal, the package is supporting six clean hydrogen production projects andeight electrolyser manufacturing firms.

The Innovation Fund using revenues raisedfrom the EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS), paid by big emitters to awardgrants for clean energy projects.

European Commission Climate Chief, WopkeHoeskstra, said this latest funding spree demonstrated how the EU ETS is a “greattool in reducing emissions and funding the projects we need to build aclimate-neutral and competitive Europe.”

Four green hydrogen projects in Belgium,Germany, France and Finland; one Belgian blue hydrogen plant; and awaste-to-hydrogen facility in Sweden are all being supported. These are:

• The European Network for Hydrogen and Ammonia Carbon-Neutral     Energy (Belgium), which has few details available Developed by Air     Liquide, the project will produce green hydrogen for ammonia production     and liquefaction.

• H2BE (Belgium). Under development by Engie’s Electrabel     subsidiary and Equinor, the project is expected to produce 210,000 tonnes     of blue hydrogen through autothermal reforming (ATR) by 2030.

• H2HubEmden (Germany) by Statkraft will build a 200MW electrolyser     built at the Emden power plant.

• Hydrogen Offshore Dunkerque (France), is an offshore     electrolyser plant by EDF, which will use offshore wind to produce green     hydrogen.

• Solavy Chemicals, under its HydroGreen (Finland) project, will     install a 30MW electrolyser at its Kouvola factory for the production of     hydrogen peroxide.

• Köping Hydrogen Park (Sweden) will see a plasma gasification     system produce 12,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year from over 60,000 tonnes     of waste.

The green hydrogen projects are expected toproduce a combined 61,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year.

Electrolysers win big

Additionally, eight electrolysermanufacturers have grabbed funds. These include Norwegian-based Nel,which has already announced the €135m in funding that will be used to scalemanufacturing of its new pressurised alkaline technologies.

Estonia’s Elcogen will usethe funding to support the manufacturing of its SOEC technology in Tallinn,

Netherlands-based BattolyserSystems will use its grant to build its 1GW factory in the Port ofRotterdam which will produce its alkaline electrolysers with batteryfunctionality which improves flexibility with fluctuating renewables.

Compatriot HydrogenPro’s Danishsubsidiary secured €16.5m to support the production of 350MW of its next-generationelectrodes in Denmark. The H2-GIGA plant is expected to come online by Q1 2025.

Norwegian PEM company Hystar willreceive €26m to fund the installation and operation of its automated giga-scaleproduction line for its electrolyser stacks in Høvik, Norway. The line isexpected to boast 1.5GW of capacity by 2027 and 4.5GW in 2031.

Having announced plans to commercialise thetechnology in March, thyssenkruppnucera will use funding tomake 300MW of solid oxide electrolyser (SOEC).

Advent Technologies’ Greek business was awarded funding to produce PEM electrolysersand high-temperature PEM (HT-PEM) fuel cell components.

Italy’s VisionH2 was theonly anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolyser firm to gain access toInnovation Fund grants. It will use the money on a “modular and highlyreplicable” factory to build a distributed European manufacturing network.

Source: H2-view