The EU Commission has approved a third Important Project of Common European Interest ('IPCEI') to support hydrogen infrastructure and boost the supply of renewable hydrogen.

The “IPCEI Hy2Infra” project was developed by seven member states, including France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Slovakia. These countries will collectively provide EUR 6.9 billion (~USD 7.4 billion) in public funding, expected to unlock EUR 5.4 billion (~USD 5.8 billion) in private investments. Furthermore, as part of the project, 32 companies with activities in member states will participate in 33 projects.

The IPCEI Hy2Infra will support the deployment of 1) 3.2 GW of large-scale electrolyzers to produce renewable hydrogen; 2) new and re-purposed hydrogen transmission and distribution pipelines of ~2,700 km; 3) the development of large-scale hydrogen storage facilities with capacity of at least 370 GWh; and 4) the construction of handling terminals and related port infrastructure for liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC) to handle 6,000 tonnes of hydrogen a year.

Analyst QuickTake : This investment by the EU follows the US Department of Energy investment of USD 7 billion to create seven Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs (H2Hubs) in October 2023 . The seven H2Hubs aim to form a national clean hydrogen network, promoting its production, storage, and delivery. These are expected to reduce annual emissions equivalent to those of 5.5 million gasoline-powered vehicles and to collectively produce three million metric tons of hydrogen annually.