The EU Commission has selected 42 new infrastructure projects to receive more than €424m ($450m) in EU funds, including 48 hydrogen refuelling stations (HRS).
Under the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Facility (AFIF) funding, part of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), 48 HRS and 4,200 electric charging points on the European TEN-T road network will receive backing.
21 European airports will benefit from EU funding and will implement HRS for cars, trucks and buses to accelerate the transition of aviation in Europe.
Following EU Member States’ approval of the selected projects, the European Commission will adopt the award decision “in the coming weeks, following which the results become definitive.” A new AFIF call for applications is currently open until September 24, 2024.
Read more: Number of European hydrogen refuelling stations set to grow as new law is adopted
Five HRS in Poland are set to receive up to €29m, to deploy 350 and 700 bar stations on the TEN-T network, using an electrolyser to produce hydrogen. Also in Poland, the Clean Cities project, led by ORLEN, could be granted up to €124m.
AFIF boasts a budget of €1bn for the 2024-2025 period and aims to continue funding projects through the combination of CEF grants and financing from financial institutions. The €424m funding was coupled with financing to achieve a higher impact of the EU grants.
“Since 2021, the EU has granted over €1.3bn through AFIF to several projects, deploying 26,396 electric charging points, 202 HRS, and electrifying ground operations in 63 airports,” said European Commissioner for Transport, Adina Vălean
The Director of the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), Paloma Aba Garrote added, “With this new selection, the EU is showing that a transition to zero-emissions transport through alternative fuels is not a dream for the future, but something that is happening now across the EU.”
CINEA has now started the preparation of the grant agreements with the beneficiaries of the successful projects.
Last year (2023), the Hydrogen Council found that Europe is falling behind Asia in operational HRS by around 42%, despite the deployment of infrastructure growing by 50% from the end of 2021 to 2022.
Read more:Europe playing ‘catch up to Asia’ in HRS deployment
