Regional policies for early uptake of hydrogen mobility: key learnings

Webinar

01 April 2025

By Platform

On 27 March 2025, the Interreg Europe Policy Learning Platform held a webinar on the topic of Regional policies for early uptake of hydrogen mobility.

Hydrogen will play a key role in decarbonising mobility, particularly for vehicles that cannot be electrified. However, technical, logistical, economic, and social barriers require coordinated policy action at all levels. Regions are crucial in driving hydrogen adoption by connecting stakeholders, scaling up production, and positioning themselves as innovation hubs.

The webinar kicked-off with a keynote from Matteo Azzimonti of Hydrogen Europe on the European framework and support options for Hydrogen projects and contained good practices from three Interreg Europe Projects – GH2M, Green Hydra and UNIFHY.

Webinar recording

Webinar agenda

Navigate the agenda below to the topic of your interest.

This webinar was designed and moderated by Katharina Krell and Simon Hunkin, Thematic exerts for a greener Europe.

00:00:58 Introduction by Katharina Krell and Simon Hunkin, Thematic exerts for a greener Europe.

00:10:26 Q&A: Matteo, a few days ago, scientists have discovered the World’s largest reserve of natural H2 in France while they were searching for methane. Now, the question where all the H2 needed to decarbonise our heavy-duty mobility application and our industry should come from could be solved, right?

00:13:51 Keynote speech: European Framework & Support for Hydrogen Mobility, by Matteo Azzimonti, Hydrogen Europe

00:25:30 Q&A: What does it mean to 'create ecosystems'? How can régions support the creation of ecosystems if that is at a company level?

00:28:08 Presentation on Solar H2 for use in heavy duty vehicles in Drenthe by Sander Bijkerk, Province of Drenthe, Netherlands (GH2M)

00:39:08 Q&A: How have you been developing the partnership, and who is managing the collaboration?

00:40:36 Q&A: What is estimated cost of H2/kg?

00:41:36 Q&A: What other policy frameworks have you given yourself to facilitate the growth of your region on hydrogen?

00:43:07 Presentation on Croatia piloting hydrogen-powered bus in public city transport, by Vesna Kučan Polak, Croatian Hydrocarbon Agency (Green Hydra)

00:53:40 Q&A: How did the public transport companies in Croatia react to the H2 bus?

00:55:32 Q&A: Is there a strategy in Croatia / Zagreb to introduce H2 buses yet?
H2 allows buses to run hundreds of km withing refuelling. In which operational context would it be most intersecting to deploy H2 buses?

00:57:07 Presentation on Low-cost public hydrogen filling station by Daniel Minarik, Moravian-Silesian Region, Czechia (UNIFHY)

01:08:05 Q&A: What is the use strategy for hydrogen in the region?

01:11:59 Pannel discussion and key take aways from the speakers

Key learnings

Hydrogen has much promise for decarbonising several sectors, as a clean and versatile energy carrier for hard-to-abate sectors like heavy industry and transportation.

Green hydrogen, produced using renewable energy, offers a sustainable alternative to fossil fuels, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and enhancing energy security. It also enables energy storage and supports the integration of renewable energy sources by balancing supply and demand fluctuations.

Hydrogen offers significant benefits for mobility by enabling zero-emission transportation

With fast refuelling times and long driving ranges, it is ideal for heavy-duty vehicles, buses, trains, and even aviation. Hydrogen will be complementary to e-mobility and can reduce pressure on the grid, which might so far not be ready for widespread electrification.

To support hydrogen mobility roll-out, the EU has set up a comprehensive policy framework.

This includes the Clean Vehicles Directive which promotes public procurement of hydrogen vehicles, and CO₂ Standards which set strict emissions reduction targets for cars, vans, and heavy-duty vehicles, to incentivise development of hydrogen-powered options.

The Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) mandates the deployment of hydrogen infrastructure along key transport corridors.

A number of funding instruments are available at the European level for supporting the hydrogen transition, from research and innovation to roll-out of technologies.

A key funding initiative is the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, which is funding the creation of Hydrogen Valleys.

Hydrogen Ecosystems, such as Valleys, are key to make hydrogen to a success

They bring together actors from production, storage, distribution and end-use to create new valley chains, act as test-beds and scale up production, and also involve local and national governments to develop effective policy frameworks.

Regional and local authorities will have a key role in the hydrogen roll-out and need to set the strategic framework for their territory.

Concretely, they should:

review their local permitting rules to speed-up and simplify permitting,
create dedicated funding schemes and opportunities,
use their procurement power for joint procurement to reduce costs,
offer early uptake guarantees as buyers of locally produced H2, linking supply and demand in the absence of a comprehensive infrastructure,
support demonstration and pilot projects to build experience and confidence amongst relevant stakeholders,
encourage public private partnerships through clusters and ecosystems while maintaining a dialogue with industry, as well as engage in overall promotion and communication about H2 initiatives, including cross-border and at EU level.

The Province of Drenthe (Netherlands) has developed the H2 Hollandia project to produce green hydrogen from solar PV generation which could not be connected to the grid due to congestion.

Instead, the green hydrogen produced will be used for heavy duty vehicles in the agricultural industry. The project brought together energy companies, an agricultural company, the municipality, province and national government, demonstrating the need for stakeholder collaboration.

The province hopes to have the first hydrogen truck operational by 2027, with ten trucks ultimately in service. Excess hydrogen will be sold to other local initiatives.

Hydrogen mobility is still new and unknown to most people, requiring awareness raising and familiarisation.

As part of the JIVE2 project a roadshow was organised whereby hydrogen buses could be tested in multiple countries, with organisation of workshops and events for students, professionals and media to raise awareness.

In Croatia, the buses were trialled in Zagreb, working with the local public transport company. The company reacted very positively to the pilot, finding that consumption of hydrogen was lower than expected and the bus as very appropriate for the hilly terrain and high temperature fluctuations.

They concluded that in the long run, it will be possible to replace their diesel bus fleet with hydrogen vehicles.

The Moravian-Silesian Region in Czechia is heavily oriented towards heavy industry, a sector which is difficult to decarbonise.

As such, the region has strong interest in hydrogen for industrial application and developed a hydrogen strategy, which also explored other applications.

To support hydrogen mobility, the region installed a first, small-scale hydrogen refuelling station for public use with operating costs 50% lower than large-scale fully equipped stations.

The practice provides a local reference for setting up regional financial instruments for rolling out low-cost infrastructure in future.

Participants discussed the optimal use of hydrogen, identifying heavy-duty vehicles trucks and buses, as the most viable options, as well as shipping and aviation.

Hydrogen passenger vehicles were not judged to be a vital technology due to the availability of e-vehicles.

It was emphasised that the right technology will always be dependent on regional conditions; in some cases, electric buses may be better than hydrogen buses and vice versa. Hydrogen trains may also be applicable in areas where electrification of the line is not possible, and off-road vehicles were also considered.

Take-aways

The panellists also debated whether it was better to start with a general hydrogen strategy or a hydrogen mobility strategy. This was also considered to be specific to local conditions as well as national frameworks.

The speakers emphasised the need for collaboration between stakeholders and the role of public authorities in facilitating this; the need to be visible and communicate about efforts; the importance of demonstration projects; and that while electrification may often be regarded as more efficient than hydrogen, this is also highly dependent on local conditions and grid capacity.