Trentino will have its Hydrogen Valley and become even greener and more sustainable.
The Province of Trento has obtained 14 million under PNRR from the Ministry of Environment and Energy Security to build green hydrogen production plants in brownfields. This initiative, for which the Ministry has allocated 450 million euros to be distributed to regions and autonomous provinces, is under Mission 2 of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, dedicated to "Green Revolution and Ecological Transition." The goal: to stimulate the birth of "hydrogen valleys," which will breathe new life into unused factories in the country and encourage the use of renewable energy sources. This is intended to speed up the decarbonization process in Italy, so as to move closer to the European Union's 2030 and 2050 targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
"Starting with the local production of hydrogen from sources, we want to get to the point of spreading its use in industries, small and medium-sized enterprises and the transport sector. From production activities to public services, green hydrogen will help reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and pollutants from fossil fuels, as well as foster job growth in the area and the promotion of research and technological innovation."
Achille Spinelli
Councillor for Economic Development, Research and Employment of the Autonomous Province of Trento
The budget allocated to the Autonomous Province of Trento provides coverage for the construction of electrolyzers and renewable energy plants for the production, compression and storage of green hydrogen. This is a great opportunity for Trentino companies to become key players in the creation of the Trentino Hydrogen Valley and help develop a sustainable local economy.
What are Hydrogen Valleys
Hydrogen valleys can be considered those regional ecosystems where green hydrogen is not only produced and stored, but also used to create a sustainable local economy.
They must fulfill the following criteria:
- Scale of development: they are multi-million investment projects that go beyond the simple testing and demonstration phase
- Defined geographic scope: they have coverage of a specific geographic area, which can be local/regional as well as international
- Value chain: they involve multiple stages of the value chain, so production, storage, transportation and purchasing
- Supply to different sectors (industry, mobility, energy, etc.): they become ecosystems in which the various end applications share a common infrastructure
FCH-JU (Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking), Europe's largest public-private partnership that has supported and financed a significant part of European hydrogen activities for more than a decade, has monitored all the projects that meet the criteria to be called hydrogen valley and collected them in a map.
