Credit Agricole Assurances, France’s largest insurance group, has made a “significant” investment in clean hydrogen fund Hy24.

Hy24, a joint venture between French asset manager Ardian and hydrogen investment firm FiveT Hydrogen, is the world’s largest pure-play clean hydrogen infrastructure fund.

Launched in October last year, it aims to raise total capital of €1.5bn ($1.6bn) to invest across the sector’s value chain, with a strong focus on mobility applications.

Credit Agricole Assurances, which already owns about 9GW of installed renewables capacity in Europe, says it will be a “major contributor” to Hy24, although it did not put a figure on the size of its commitment.

“Our investment in Hy24, the world’s largest investment platform dedicated to clean hydrogen, is fully in line with Credit Agricole Group’s climate commitments. We are delighted to collaborate with leading financial and strategic institutions in this fast-growing and complementary renewable technology,” says Philippe Dumont, CEO of Credit Agricole Assurances.

€1.5bn – Hy24 fundraising target

Existing investors in the fund include France’s TotalEnergies, industrial gases group Air Liquide, clean energy and industrial gases company Chart Industries and services company Baker Hughes. Last month, state-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation said it had agreed to invest up to €100mn in the fund.

Laurent Fayollas, president of Hy24, says the investment by Credit Agricole demonstrates the fund’s ability to bring together institutional investors with industrial partners in the hydrogen sector to help scale up hydrogen projects.

Hy24 has made several investments in recent months. In February it took a 30pc stake in the renewables arm of Spanish gas grid operator Enagas, which is investing €4bn in electrolyser capacity across 30 projects in Spain. And last month, it invested €70mn in German hydrogen refuelling infrastructure firm H2 Mobility.

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Author: Stuart Penson