North Adriatic Hydrogen Valley, a transnational project led by the Slovenian energy company HSE, has won a €25 million grant from the EU's Horizon Europe Programme.

Involving Slovenia, Croatia and the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, it is the first transnational project in Europe designed to establish a dedicated hydrogen valley, according to HSE.

The six-year project will start as soon as a date is agreed with the European Commission, most likely in the second half of 2023, HSE said on 1 February when it announced winning the grant.

North Adriatic Hydrogen Valley brings together 34 government, research, and industry partners and covers the entire value chain from production through storage and distribution to the end use of hydrogen in various sectors, primarily in industry and transport.

The partners from the three countries will develop projects to produce more than 5,000 tonnes of green hydrogen a year in a bid to decarbonise key industrial sectors such as steel and cement industries, and transport.

"This is an excellent example of inter-state and multi-disciplinary cooperation, which will facilitate, with the help of hydrogen technologies and through tapping into opportunities in energy storage, a faster green transition to emission-neutral society," HSE director general Tomaž Štokelj said.

A total of nine hydrogen projects were selected to receive a total of €105.4 million in Horizon Europe funds as part of a 2022 call that was carried out by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, a public-private partnership supporting research and innovation activities in hydrogen technologies in Europe.

The projects focus on the production of clean hydrogen and address a variety of applications in the energy, transport, and industry sectors.

According to the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, hydrogen valleys are regional ecosystems that link hydrogen production, transportation, and various end uses such as mobility or industrial feedstock.

The concept is now one of the main priorities of industry and the European Commission for scaling-up hydrogen deployments and creating interconnected hydrogen ecosystems across Europe.

Another hydrogen valley project, which aims to build a hydrogen corridor across Baltic Sea countries, won €25 million, with seven smaller-scale hydrogen valley projects receiving €8 million.