The partners of doing hydrogen have reached a major milestone these days: On the way to the IPCEI funding application to the EU, the joint documents have been completed and submitted to the coordinating body of the German government.
The IPCEI (Important Projects of Common European Interest) funding process already required close cooperation between the doing hydrogen partners.
Projects from many European countries were grouped together in waves. All doing hydrogen projects that have already been selected by the German government as potentially eligible for IPCEI funding are thus part of the so-called RHATL wave. RHATL stands for “Regional Hubs And Their Links”. RHATL brings together projects that focus on the production, transport and storage of hydrogen.
The doing hydrogen partners form the nucleus of the eastern German partner projects within this wave. But it does not stop there. RHATL is large and truly European: the wave comprises about 50 projects from eleven countries, including France, Poland, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Sweden and other EU states. Together, they are setting out to advance a European hydrogen economy. And not just as a vision, but in concrete terms with ambitious projects by renowned companies.
doing hydrogen covers the entire value chain of a market for hydrogen. From H2 production (APEX, Enertrag) to transport (GASCADE, ONTRAS) to consumption (CEMEX, Vattenfall), all the essential elements of a functioning market are covered. In addition, close cooperation with other partner projects has been agreed. The HyTechHafen Rostock as a producer and potential landing point for hydrogen imports, the LHyVE project in the Leipzig region, the Green Hydrogen Hub Leuna and the Reallabor Energiepark Bad Lauchstädt with an approximately 20-kilometre-long H2 pipeline and future storage connection, as well as the Green Octopus Central Germany transport and storage project are further parts of this close network. With their other regional hubs, they will be part of a future European hydrogen backbone. In this way, regional hubs are being formed in Germany, which can be connected to Central and Eastern Europe in the future.
The next steps on the way to IPCEI funding are the preliminary examination by the European Commission of the unobjectionability of the funding of the RHATL wave, including the individual projects, under state aid law (chapeau process). If the European Commission has no objections to the national funding of the projects under state aid law, the German projects will be notified by the Commission and the companies can submit the actual funding application to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action. doing hydrogen expects to be able to complete this process in the course of this year.
In the meantime, the partners are intensifying their cooperation, coordinating their plans and finding ways of working closely together within a growing network.
