The Council of Ministers, at the proposal of the Ministry for the Energy Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), approved a Royal Decree for the concession of 74 million euros for the start-up of four renewable hydrogen projects in Spain, from companies H2B2, SENER, Nordex and IVECO, which will mobilize a total investment of more than 245 million euros. The award is part of the Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI), approved by the European Commission –called Hy2Tech– to support research, innovation and manufacturing in its first industrial deployment in the renewable hydrogen value chain.
This IPCEI has been developed by 15 member states (Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Slovakia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Portugal), which have guaranteed the environmental and social sustainability of development of hydrogen technologies in multiple sectors, such as mobility, transport and industry.
This community agreement, among other things, aims to advance in the achievement of the objectives of the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance, as well as those of the EU in terms of decarbonization, while promoting, within the framework of the REPowerEU Communication, both energy and technological independence.
Of the 41 European projects that are going to be carried out, the European Commission has selected four Spain-based initiatives: H2B2, SENER, Nordex and IVECO. The European Commission considers that the projects that are part of the IPCEI Hy2Tech are very ambitious technological proposals, whose objectives go beyond what is currently offered on the market and that will facilitate significant improvements from the point of view of equipment performance, safety and impact on the environment, as well as cost efficiency.
The public financing of these four projects is part of the impulse that, from the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, which mobilizes European Next Generation funds, is dedicated to renewable hydrogen, with a total of 1,555 million euros.
IVECO’s ‘Poseidon’ initiative, which has granted aid of 27.05 million euros, plans the development and production of heavy commercial vehicles with hydrogen propulsion for regional and urban use. To this end, IVECO plans to invest in its headquarters in Madrid, Valladolid and Barcelona, with the aim of developing highly complex R&D processes and new production capacities, which include manufacturing and maintenance facilities, as well as the production of a first series of fuel cell pilot vehicles.
Source: Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge
