The EU will create a €3bn ($3bn) European Hydrogen Bank to help secure hydrogen supplies for member states, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said in her State of the EU address today.

The bank will guarantee purchases of hydrogen using resources from the EU’s Innovation Fund—a facility focusing on technology development that is financed by revenues from the Emissions Trading System. 

“We need to move our hydrogen economy from niche to scale,” says von der Leyen.

“To achieve this, we must create a market maker for hydrogen, in order to bridge the investment gap and connect future supply and demand.”

The policy is an evolution of the European Commission’s global European hydrogen facility plan, which was to be modelled on Germany’s H2Global support scheme. Under that scheme, a government-backed entity will buy green hydrogen from non-EU projects under long-term offtake agreements. The hydrogen will then be sold within the EU under short-term resale contracts.

“We need to move our hydrogen economy from niche to scale” Von der Leyen, EU Commission president

The Commission will provide a more detailed proposal on the measure in coming weeks.

“I welcome von der Leyen’s proposals in her State of the EU speech to accelerate the green hydrogen economy,” Werner Hoyer, president of the European Investment Bank (EIB), posted on Twitter.

“The EIB group will continue to work with the European Commission and our partners to support the green hydrogen sector.”

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Author: Tom Young