H2BE

H2BE signs the Innovation Fund Grant Agreement

We are very proud to share that ENGIE, Equinor and CINEA (European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency) have signed the Innovation Fund Grant Agreement for the H2BE project in the EU Innovation Fund ‘General decarbonization large scale’-category. The grant agreement was signed by all parties in early March and a kick-off meeting was held at CINEA offices in Brussels on March 14th.

The Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programs for the deployment of net-zero and innovative technologies that aims to bring to market solutions that decarbonize European industry and support its transition to climate neutrality while fostering competitiveness. This fund is crucial to help businesses invest in clean energy and industry while boosting economic growth and creating future-proof jobs.

With this support from the Innovation Fund, the European Union recognizes the importance of low-carbon hydrogen to industry and projects. H2BE is an innovative and “first of a kind” low-carbon hydrogen plant. Due to its large size and affordable hydrogen, it can act as a kick-starter of a new low-carbon ecosystem, enabling industrial decarbonization at scale. The Innovation Fund recognition will be instrumental in accelerating the development of our low-carbon hydrogen production facility in Belgium, as well as the infrastructure development for both low-carbon and renewable hydrogen.

“Receiving this grant is a huge stamp of approval from the EU for H2BE and for low-carbon hydrogen as a key decarbonization tool for Flanders, Belgium, and Europe. This funding is a testament to our commitment to innovation and sustainability as well as a recognition of the high-quality work performed by our teams since the inception of the project. We are excited to continue to collaborate with Equinor to bring this visionary project to life.”
Mathieu Ablard, Project Director of ENGIE

“We are very excited to have signed the Innovation Fund Grant, and for what’s to come. H2BE’s low-carbon hydrogen can play a crucial role in taking Flanders to a net-zero future. This fund, together with the launch of the Clean Industrial Act, marks an important step from the EU towards implementing policies and regulations supporting affordable decarbonization technologies. We greatly value our partnership with ENGIE in developing this project, where the complementary nature of our two companies and cultures enables us to achieve more by working together.”
Helene Røsand, Project Director of Equinor


EU2NSEA PCI projects receive €30M in EU funding

On January 31st, the European Commission announced the recipients of the latest round of Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funds. Several of the EU2NSEA projects from the 2022 Project of Common Interest (PCI), including the H2BE associated CO2 Highway Europe-project, received a total of around €30M.

H2BE is delighted to be one of the projects in the EU2NSEA PCI application. Being part of the EU2NSEA PCI, an ecosystem of companies representing the whole carbon capture and storage (CCS) value chain in North-West Europe, strengthens the credibility and the value of the project. It also ties H2BE to the EU2NSEA CO2 storage infrastructures, such as the CO2 Highway Europe, which will safely transport and store the captured CO2 from H2BE. The CEF funding is great news for H2BE as it will contribute to building up critical CO2 infrastructures and will be instrumental towards the successful set-up of an efficient CCS value chain in North-West Europe.

Collaboration between industries, governments and organizations is crucial to succeed with decarbonizing European industries to reach Net-Zero goals, and the EU2NSEA PCI is very important to pave the way for European CCS deployment at scale. The projects that received funding all contribute to the EU2NSEA, a project of common interest (PCI) under the EU TEN-E regulation, where Equinor acts as coordinator. The EU2NSEA PCI aims at developing a resilient, scalable onshore and offshore pipeline-based system enabling the transport and storage of CO2 from North-West Europe to the North Sea.

The EU2NSEA PCI includes 22 emitters in 7 countries, 28 capture sites, and storage capacity of around 15 million tonnes of CO2 per year at two storage sites in the North Sea. In addition to the funding, the PCI status offers as well accelerated permitting and increased visibility and relevance for all its projects. In the future, additional storage sites might be added to accommodate a total of 42 million tonnes of CO2 per year from all the EU2NSEA PCI projects.

The EU2NSEA projects that received CEF study funding in this round are:

  • BE-EU2NSEA: Belgium to the North Sea Cross-Border CO2 Transport Infrastructure €13.8 million applied in partnership between Equinor and Fluxys (CO2 Highway Europe)
  • NSCC: Germany-Study Planning and approval of the North Sea CO2 transport corridor in Germany €2.8 million for OGE
  • WHVCC-Study: Planning and preparation of the Wilhelmshaven CO2 transport corridor in Germany €6.2 million for OGE
  • DKHARBO 2 CO2HE: France CO2 Network connection to CO2 Highway Europe €7.7 million applied in partnership between Equinor and NaTran

H2BE receives STEP Seal label from CINEA

H2BE

The European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) has officially awarded the STEP Seal label to H2BE. The Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) Seal is a quality label awarded by the European Commission. It has been set up by the EU to support the European industry and boost investment in critical technologies in Europe. It’s aimed at facilitating access to funding opportunities under other Union programs covered by STEP.

Following evaluation by an international panel of independent experts, H2BE was recognized as a high-quality project proposal in a highly competitive evaluation process which contributes to the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP) objectives.

For further information, please visit https://strategic-technologies.europa.eu.


H2BE part of European CCS collaboration through EU2NSEA network

The EU Project of Common Interest “EU2NSEA” is paving the way for European large-scale CCS deployment. EU2NSEA aims at developing CO2 transport & storage infrastructure for large-scale decarbonization of North-West Europe. H2BE is one of the underlying associated projects.

Collaboration between industries, governments and organizations is critical to succeed in developing new value chains and accelerate decarbonization on scale, in a cost-efficient manner. The Norwegian energy company Equinor, the Belgian energy infrastructure operator Fluxys and the German energy company Wintershall Dea, together with a dedicated group of affiliated companies in 10 countries are cooperating to establish a major cross-border CO2 infrastructure network called the EU2NSEA project.

The list of projects under the EU2NSEA umbrella contains prioritized infrastructure projects of particular interest and strategic importance for the EU’s energy policies and decarbonization ambitions. Associated projects include 16 emitters, 31 industrial sites and 2 storage sites, planning for CO2 emission reductions of 34 Mtpa in total.  H2BE will use this CO2 infrastructure to transport the captured CO2 to safe storage in under the seabed of the Norwegian North Sea.

The European Commission’s priority status gives visibility for projects at the EU level, access to EU policy processes and the opportunity to apply for grants through the Connecting European Facilities (CEF) energy scheme.

PCI/PMI facts:


Read more on www.eu2nsea.com.

 


H2BE receives support from European Innovation Fund

We are extremely proud to share that H2BE has been selected by the EU Innovation Fund in the ‘general decarbonization large scale’-category and has received an invitation to negotiate the Innovation Fund grant. The Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest funding programs for the deployment of net-zero and innovative technologies that aims to bring to market solutions that decarbonize European industry and support its transition to climate neutrality while fostering competitiveness.This fund is crucial to help businesses invest in clean energy and industry while boosting economic growth and creating future-proof jobs. 

H2BE represents a significant leap forward in our efforts to combat climate change. With this support from the Innovation Fund, the European Union recognizes the importance of H2BE in providing low-carbon hydrogen to industry and projects which are part of this innovative “first of a kind” ecosystem. This recognition will be instrumental in accelerating the development and deployment of H2BE that will scale up the production capabilities for low-carbon hydrogen in Belgium, as well as the infrastructure development for both low-carbon and renewable hydrogen. It also represents an important step forward for taking on the remaining challenges such as ensuring suitable policies from the European Commission and Member States on the low-carbon economy to allow a sustainable way to decarbonize our industries.

“Receiving this grant invitation is a huge stamp of approval from the EU for H2BE and for low-carbon hydrogen as a key decarbonization tool for Flanders, Belgium, and Europe. This funding is a testament to our commitment to innovation and sustainability. We are excited to collaborate with Equinor to bring this visionary project to life.”
Mathieu Ablard, Project Director of ENGIE

“We are very grateful for the EU IF’s recognition of the crucial role that low-carbon hydrogen will play in taking us to a net-zero future. We see this as an important step from the EU towards implementing policies and regulations that will enable our customers to commit to this value chain development. We greatly value our partnership with ENGIE in developing this project, where the complementary nature of our two companies and cultures enables us to achieve more by working together.”
Helene Røsand, Project Director of Equinor

For more information regarding the Innovation Fund, please visit  Innovation Fund projects – European Commission


H2BE at Belgian Economic Mission to Norway

From 16 to 19 June 2024, Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid of Belgium, led an economic mission to the Kingdom of Norway. A broad economic and academic delegation traveled to Oslo to promote Belgium as an attractive partner and gateway to the European market. The program included meetings with local companies, seminars and company visits to the main players in the Belgian economy present in Norway. Additionally, there were exchanges between Belgian and Norwegian academics aimed at expanding cooperation between research institutions.

Norway and Belgium share strong and longstanding trade relations, with energy playing an important role. ENGIE and Equinor were important participants of the mission. The two partners of the H2BE project had the chance to present their longstanding relationship and to elaborate on the development of H2BE that, once in operation, will produce 200 000 tonnes of low carbon hydrogen per year at the ENGIE Rodenhuize site in North Sea Port (Ghent). This low carbon hydrogen, as well as other carbon capture (and usage) projects (CCUS), will allow the decarbonization of hard to abate industrials, who are key to the Belgian economy and will help Belgium achieve its greenhouse gas reduction targets.

 During the mission Equinor and ENGIE hosted a roundtable dinner with participants from industry, ports and infrastructure and policy representatives of Flanders, Wallonia and the Belgian Federal level. The ‘Oslo Declaration’ on Carbon Capture Use and Storage (CCUS) was signed by both H2BE partners and the other Belgian industrial players. The declaration, which was handed over to Belgian policymakers, calls for the necessary support to develop the low carbon value chains. CCUS solutions are an important lever to reach net zero carbon. It is important for Belgium to extend its current energy hub role for natural gas and power towards hydrogen and CO2. Realizing a large project at scale like H2BE will contribute to this and kickstart the hydrogen and CO2 value chains in Belgium.

 The mission was concluded with a visit at the ‘Northern Lights’ site, Norway’s first commercial storage for CO2 on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Equinor is one of the major investors of Northern Lights. The project has developed the world’s first open-source CO2 transport and storage infrastructure. When finalized later this fall, it will provide a safe and permanent storage option for CO2 that is removed from industrial processes.


Stakeholder Event H2BE

On 6 June, Grete Tveit (SVP for Low Carbon Solutions Equinor) and Vincent Verbeke (CEO ENGIE Belgium) had the pleasure of welcoming over 100 stakeholders at the annual H2BE Stakeholder Event in Brussels (Belgium).

A complete update on H2BE was presented to all participants who were eager to discover the project’s next steps. In addition, key stakeholders and industrial players testified about their carbon neutrality roadmaps and the importance of the development of solutions at scale, like H2BE, that are able to kickstart the H2 and CO2 value chains. At the end of the day, we organized an insightful panel discussion among industry leaders to identify common challenges and necessary steps forward. 

 The event was concluded at the historical Town Hall of the city of Brussels in the presence of the Mayor of Brussels and the Ambassador of Norway to Belgium.