The European Investment Bank (EIB) and Hydrogen Council have signed an agreement to collaborate on developing innovative schemes to finance hydrogen projects.
The hydrogen economy will require annual investments of $20-25bn until 2030 and while hydrogen technologies are poised to play a key role in accelerating the energy transition, they still have to be scaled up. The collaboration between the EIB and Hydrogen Council will look to take steps towards achieving these by accelerating and facilitating access to funding as well as, offering strategic financial advice and support to companies preparing to deploy large-scale hydrogen projects. This will ensure such solutions can become more readily available to consumers around the world.
The agreement will also aim to contribute to identifying and sourcing hydrogen investment projects that could be financed by the EIB, identify potential funding gaps related to hydrogen projects, and explore the need for potential new financial instruments to address such funding gaps.
Co-Secretary of the Hydrogen Council, Pierre-Etienne Franc said: “This collaboration agreement signals to the market that a major shift is about to take place. As confidence in hydrogen continues to grow, investors are coming to the table to back innovations and turn them into a reality. Hydrogen Council members recognize the strong business case for hydrogen and, as we work alongside the EIB, our goal is to find new and innovative ways to fund these solutions. Only when we scale deployment will we help realize the full potential of hydrogen to drastically decrease energy-related CO2 emissions.”
