Clean Hydrogen Partnership opens call for tender to set up Hydrogen Valleys Facility

The Clean Hydrogen Partnership, a public-private partnership supporting research and innovation (R&I) activities in hydrogen technologies in Europe, has published a call for tender to set up and run a Hydrogen Valleys Facility.

As disclosed, the Hydrogen Valleys Facility will aim to accelerate the number of hydrogen valleys in Europe. It will include project development assistance to support hydrogen valleys at different levels of maturity.

The main focus will be on European countries with the possibility of such project development assistance to be extended to third countries, in line with the European Commission policy priorities.

The facility will also include activities for retaining, collecting, analyzing, disseminating, and using skills, knowledge, and lessons from hydrogen valley projects in a structured and efficient way.

Additionally, the Hydrogen Valleys Facility will be used to maintain and update the Mission Innovation Hydrogen Valley Platform, a global collaboration platform for all information on large-scale hydrogen flagship projects.

The call to award a €12,5 million contract with a duration of a maximum of five years was opened on June 25, 2024. The deadline for receipt of tenders is set for September 27, 2024.

Following its first call for proposals, the Clean Hydrogen Partnership awarded €105.4 million in funding for nine hydrogen valley projects across Europe at the beginning of 2023.

Two flagship hydrogen valley projects received official green lights last year. Namely, the BalticSeaH2 project – a large-scale cross-border hydrogen valley gathering 40 partners from nine Baltic Sea region countries – with production potential for hydrogen to reach 100,000 tonnes annually, kicked off in June 2023 and will last for five years.

The North Adriatic Hydrogen Valley (NAHV) project, a transnational project by Slovenia, Croatia and the Italian Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, received the official green light for its implementation as of 1 September 2023. The project will take 72 months and feature 17 pilot projects in various locations in all three partner countries.

Another example is Cepsa’s Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley, a €3 billion investment that will see the construction of two green hydrogen production facilities in Huelva and Campo de Gibraltar, Cadiz. The facilities will have a combined electrolysis capacity of 2 GW and produce up to 300,000 tonnes of green hydrogen a year.