Strasbourg (awp/afp) – The EU will set up a new public bank dedicated to the development of hydrogen, capable of investing 3 billion euros “to build the future market” of this booming energy, has European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday.
“We need to move from the niche market to the mass market (…) we want to produce ten million tonnes of renewable hydrogen in the EU every year by 2030,” she told parliament. European in Strasbourg.
This requires “filling the investment gap”, she said, assuring that this public bank will also contribute to “guarantee the purchase of hydrogen”.
In May, the Commission presented its “RePower EU” plan providing for an acceleration of renewable energies in Europe to free itself as quickly as possible from imports of Russian gas, in response to the war in Ukraine.
In July, the European executive approved a research and development project in favor of hydrogen, a strategic sector for the decarbonization of the economy, by federating 41 initiatives involving 35 companies (large groups, SMEs or start-ups), supported by 15 Member States including Germany, Spain, France, Italy and Poland.
In this context, Brussels has authorized public funding of up to 5.4 billion euros, estimating that this state aid should make it possible to mobilize 8.8 billion additional private investments and create 20,000 jobs across Europe. .
Hydrogen should play a central role in enabling industry to produce steel, cement or chemical and pharmaceutical products without emitting CO2.
For this it must itself be green, that is to say resulting from an electrolysis of the water molecule (H2O) which separates hydrogen and oxygen thanks to electricity generated from low carbon energies.
Green hydrogen could thus replace coal in industry and make it possible to store intermittent renewable energies, solar or wind, via fuel cells. Heavy transport (trains, ships, road utility vehicles, etc.) could also use hydrogen to replace their fossil fuels.
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