European Investment Bank and Hydrogen Europe team up on hydrogen projects

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and industry association Hydrogen Europe have signed an agreement for consultancy services for green hydrogen projects.

The agreement ensures that the EIB will provide financing advisory support for hydrogen projects introduced by Hydrogen Europe.

The parties will cooperate on market development initiatives and conduct joint market outreach.

This will also help develop dedicated EIB financing products for green hydrogen.

Hydrogen technology is seen as playing a major part in achieving a carbon-neutral EU economy by 2050.

The European Hydrogen Strategy, which is part of the European Green Deal, wants to enable the widespread use of hydrogen by 2050.

According to the strategy, green hydrogen will be produced on a systemically relevant scale between 2030 and 2050. For that to happen, investments in renewable or low-carbon hydrogen will need to increase.

The strategy expects that between €180 and €470 billion will be required for production capacities in the EU by 2050.

Alongside the European Commission, Hydrogen Europe is one of the three participants of the European Joint Undertaking on Hydrogen, a partnership working to facilitate the market introduction of clean hydrogen technologies in Europe.

Green, zero-emission hydrogen is very costly. In the EU context, the European Investment Bank is a key funding partner. Over the past eight years, the EU bank has provided over €2 billion in advisory and financial support to projects that use hydrogen technologies.

EIB President Werner Hoyer said: “Green hydrogen presents an opportunity to decarbonise industrial processes, particularly in sectors where emission reduction is urgent but difficult to achieve. Many European countries are actively supporting the development of hydrogen technologies.

One of the main strengths of the European Investment Bank is that it combines advisory and technical support in the initial phases of a project with attractive forms of financing later on. This model is perfect for the development and deployment of new breakthrough technologies, including those based on the use of hydrogen.”