The European Hydrogen Bank's pilot auction for renewable hydrogen production was a success. They have arrived 132 offers from projects in 17 countries. The requested financial support far exceeds the 800 million euros established by the Innovation Fund. The European Commission explained that the offers taken together envisage an electricity generation capacity using electrolysers of 8,5 gigawatts. “Over ten years, this would lead to a total production volume of 8,8 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen and on an annual basis this would cover almost 10% of the EU's REPowerEU ambition for renewable hydrogen production in 2030 .
The news gives the start to the design of renewable energy systems useful primarily to industry. EU programs are oriented towards an increasing use of green hydrogen energy as an alternative to gas, oil and coal. The auction made official today is of an exploratory nature, but the numbers released are of great interest.
Snam, Italy is moving too
Startups and SMEs involved in experimenting with hydrogen will be the protagonists of the new edition of HyAccelerator organized by Snam. It is the third edition of a program that has already seen the participation of over 100 subjects from all over the world. This year the initiative transformed into call4startup Decarbonization Nexus.
Snam has decarbonisation objectives and for this reason it is looking for new technologies that help it respect the net zero emissions to 2050. It is a goal coveted by the majority of European companies. It is not certain that it will be successful, because the biggest game is played on technologies capable of modifying production cycles. Today's ones are Chinese or American, but “Nexus” means connection and collaboration.
Trying to do like the USA or Asia is the center of any strategy and Italy, with its historic presence in the fossil fuel sector, has a good opportunity. In the call4startup Decarbonization Nexus, for example, there are already six companies chosen from previous editions. The work to do it will not be short, it will have to ensure more virtuous processes.
Snam, two operational phases thinking about the market
Snam's program is open until the next one 26 March and welcomes proposals from operators focused on hydrogen production, transport and storage. The selection will reward five participants who will face two phases of work. With the first, the five selected will engage for two months "with HyAccelerator and its partners for mutual knowledge, technical insights and training sessions mentoring” informs the company. In the second, two of the five winners will continue the journey for 4 months through the analysis of a use case of the startup's technological application in the Snam ecosystem.
A few days ago the company also announced a market tests with Confindustria to understand the demand for hydrogen in Italy. This is a potential market that will grow as industry and transportation find it convenient prices to keep machinery and engines going. Through programs like these from Snam we should be able to understand Italy's ability to challenge the most advanced countries.
Italy on the other hand is also struggling with the absence of rules for the production and marketing of the product. A gap to be filled together with experiments.
Very nice to see a giant like SNAM investing in the future!