Last year the EU Commission and 60 European Industries launched an ambitious
EU Joint Undertaking for fuel cells and hydrogen (FCH JU) that will facilitate the
commercial market for many hydrogen applications. Regions and large municpalities will be instrumental for its success as the location for large demonstration projects foreseen in the FCH JU programme. Over the years many regions and large municipalities have already started to integrate first hydrogen and fuel cell applications into their energy and transport strategies and they have recently joined forces to create the European Regions and Municipalities Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells, HyRaMP hosted by the EHA in Brussels. Many local activities are linking local renewable energy with hydrogen as an energy carrier, storing electricity of intermittent sources and paving the way for efficient electric transport systems.
The European Hydrogen Association, EHA, is organizing a session “Hydrogen and
fuel cells as strong partners of local renewable energy systems”, at the European
Sustainble Energy Week on February 9, 2009 from 1400 till 1730, Hall 51 in the
Committee of the Regions, Bâtiment Jacques Delors, Rue Belliard 99-101, Brussels.
The session seeks to inspire local authorities to start integrating the use of hydrogen in their policies. Presentations of regions and municipalities that are effectively integrating hydrogen applications in their energy and transport system and a Round Table of industry experts will give insight in the opportunities and challenges.
As commercial applications are coming to market the standardisation of
authorisation procedures for hydrogen refuelling installations and stationary power
applications, as well as the homologation of hydrogen vehicles and the facilitation of
clean hydrogen production technologies are crucial to guarantee the role of market
leader of European industries in this field, especially with regards to small and
medium size enterprises. Last but not least the EHA is urging the EU and national
governments to include support for hydrogen and fuel cell technologies into their
financial support packages, including future infrastructure investments, to capitilise
on the impressive improvements in performance and costs of hydrogen and fuel cell
systems over the last years.
The EHA is representing fourteen national associations (BE, CH, DE, ES, F, H, IT,
LV, N, NL, PT, PL, SE, UK) and the main hydrogen infrastructure development
companies (Air Liquide, Air Products, ENI, StatoilHydro, the Linde Group, Shell
Hydrogen).
For more information on the programme and to register for the EHA session at the
European Sustainable Energy Week please visit www.eusew.eu.
For further information on EHA activities please contact: Tanya Carre, info@h2euro.org EHA Secretariat: Gulledelle 98, 1200 Brussels Tel +32 2 763 25 61 Fax +32 2 772 5044
info@h2euro.org www.h2euro.org