News IPCEI

OMV today announced the successful start-up of its 10 megawatts green hydrogen production plant, located at the Schwechat refinery near Vienna, the largest of its kind in Austria.

Fincantieri and Viking announced today the first cruise ship in the world to be powered by hydrogen stored onboard for both propulsion and onboard electricity generation, the “Viking Libra”. The vessel is currently under construction at the Fincantieri Ancona shipyard, with delivery scheduled for late 2026.

A 25km pipeline connecting a 30MW green hydrogen plant to the TotalEnergies refinery in Leuna, Germany, has been commissioned for hydrogen transport following its conversion from natural gas use.

Spain has taken a sweeping step toward dominating Europe’s green hydrogen economy, unleashing €1.22 billion [$1.34 billion USD] in funding for seven hydrogen hub megaprojects totaling 2.3GW across Aragon, Andalusia, Castilla y León, and Galicia. Announced on April 4 by the Institute for the Diversification and Saving of Energy (IDAE), the funding lands under the H2 Valleys programme, which aims to anchor large-scale domestic hydrogen production and industrial use.

The EU’s Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency has launched a call for €600m ($664m) in funding from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Energy towards key cross-border infrastructure.

First phase work is now underway on the hydrogen pipeline network of Belgium hydrogen network operator Fluxys Hydrogen, with 2026 targeted for completion.

Germany’s largest proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer has gone into operation at BASF’s Ludwigshafen site.

The European Commission has approved a €400m Austrian state aid scheme and a €36m Lithuanian state aid scheme, to support the production of renewable hydrogen.

The European Hydrogen Bank’s second auction for the production of renewable hydrogen has attracted 61 bids from projects in 11 countries with the European Economic Area (EEA) . Eight of the bids were submitted under the dedicated maritime topic by hydrogen producers with off-takers in the maritime sector.

The German state of Baden-Württemberg will support local hydrogen production projects under a new €100m ($105m) subsidy programme.