Europe’s Renewable Hydrogen Leaders Call For A New Deal To Scale Up

At today's Renewable Hydrogen Summit, Commissioner for Energy and Housing Dan Jørgensen reaffirmed the European Commission's commitment to scale up renewable hydrogen in Europe, as the Renewable Hydrogen Coalition (RHC) calls for a "New Deal" for the sector to maintain Europe's first-mover advantage amid growing global competition.

Building on a Declaration released at the Summit, the sector stressed that renewable hydrogen is uniquely placed to reinforce Europe's resilience, decarbonise hard-to-electrify sectors, and anchor leadership in the clean technologies that will define the industries of the future and deliver jobs to Europeans.

The European renewable hydrogen sector has scaled at an impressive pace compared to other industries. Electrolyser manufacturing capacity has increased in just a few short years from 1 GW to 10 GW soon coming in operation, and to reach 15 GW by 20261. Production projects are also increasing in size. Yet leaders warned that viable business cases and firm demand remain out of reach without stronger policies.

RHC Co-chair Ana Quelhas, Chief Hydrogen and Data Center Officer at EDP Renewables emphasised the urgency to translate ambition into tangible results: "Europe's renewable hydrogen sector won't emerge on ambition alone. We need support frameworks that decisively catalyse demand, combined with fit-for-purpose schemes that reward scalable, investment-ready projects, and acknowledge the real cost gap through flexible, cumulative funding."
Europe's success depends on scaling the industry. "Europe already has the global lead in hydrogen innovation, but innovation alone doesn't guarantee manufacturing leadership and commercial scaling," said RHC Co-Chair Kim Hedegaard, CEO Power-to-X at Topsoe, adding "For this to happen, we need Made-in-EU cleantech to be prioritised in funding calls and procurement and non-price criteria such as resilience, sustainability, and local content to be applied in EU funding schemes."

The Summit Declaration outlined urgent actions for policymakers to create effective demand incentives for products made with renewable hydrogen, enhance supply, develop electricity and hydrogen infrastructure, and ensure public funding supports scaling up to meet EU goals.

At the Summit, the European Commission announced the launch of the third auction under
the European Hydrogen Bank, backed by a €1.3 billion EU budget. This will be reinforced by national contributions: Spain is adding €415 million, while Germany will match the EU with an additional €1.3 billion. Together, these commitments bring the total budget for this round to over
€3 billion. These national contributions show the increasing relevance of the Hydrogen Bank in supporting domestic projects. The RHC has invited other Member States to follow suit.

Amid calls to weaken adopted climate and energy policies and technology-neutral narratives, RHC leaders also called on all like-minded companies and organisations to join the RHC and advocate for policies that accelerate the renewable hydrogen sector's growth in Europe.

Industry leaders reaffirm their commitment to accelerating investment and realising mature projects, provided Europe implements these actions that reflect the strategic importance of renewable hydrogen to its industrial growth, climate, and security objectives.

Read the full declaration