Part 4

Hy-Achieving – creating a suitable incentive regime

France, which is currently concentrating its climate change efforts on nuclear energy generation, does not seem to need hydrogen as much as the EU’s most supportive Member States (such as the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and Portugal).

However, this is changing. The former Minister for Ecological and Solidarity Transition, Elisabeth Borne, explained during a hearing at the Senate in mid-February 2020 that “it is very important for France to position itself on this technology of the future. We have a very broad ambition on green hydrogen for industry, mobility, but also for storage”. She also mentioned, on several occasions, the possible use of hydrogen as a fuel in aviation.

In addition, in mid-June 2020, the energy ministers of France, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland urged the European Commission to set targets for renewable hydrogen until 2030 and to increase its financial support for this technology. The countries called on the EC to develop a roadmap with objectives for decarbonising the energy sector by focusing on so-called green hydrogen.

Furthermore, the French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire recently announced, as a result of the Covid19 crisis that “in the stimulus package, we will massively invest in research and production of hydrogen in France”, adding that it “may be the new energy” that will power trucks and trains.

On 10 September 2020, the French Government unveiled a national strategy for carbon-free hydrogen, setting out three core objectives:

• to install enough electrolysers to make a significant contribution to the decarbonisation of the economy;
• to develop clean mobility, particularly for heavy vehicles; and
• to foster the development of an H2 industrial sector in France, creating jobs and guaranteeing France’s technological expertise.

This strategy has been allocated €7.2bn for the period up to 2030, including €2bn up to 2020.

The French Government defined three priorities:

1st priority: to decarbonise the industry by creating a French electrolysis sector

The strategy considers electrolysis as the most promising among the various existing technical processes. France aims to install 6.5 GW of electrolysers by 2030. To achieve this, the strategy proposes ways to develop high-capacity projects thanks to visibility on demand and to move to industrial scale to achieve profitability.

To this end, a Major Project of Common European Interest (PIIEEC/IPCEI) on hydrogen, following the example of the European project on batteries, will be implemented as early as 2021. France will allocate €1.5bn to this action.

2nd priority: to develop heavy mobility using decarbonised hydrogen

According to the French Government, the hydrogen sector represents a major economic challenge with a turnover of more than €100bn and 225,000 jobs. It is a dynamic market calling for technological solutions superior to those of batteries. The strategy thus offers tools to produce reliable vehicles for companies, to have high-performance and upgradeable equipment, and to have the skills to produce and maintain the vehicles.

In this respect, two calls for projects will be launched by the end of 2020:

• the first call for projects, "Technological Bricks and Demonstrators", has been allocated a budget of €300m until 2023. Its specifications were approved by the Government on 6 October 2020. It aims to develop or improve components and systems related to hydrogen production and transportation.
• the second call for projects, "Territorial Hydrogen Hubs", has been allocated a budget of €275m and was officially launched on 13 October 2020 by the ADEME (a French State agency responsible inter alia for the development of innovative projects). It aims to invest in localised hydrogen ecosystems, associating hydrogen production and/or distribution infrastructures with use cases (in particular industrial, mobility and energy storage).

3rd priority: to support research, innovation and skills development in order to promote the use of tomorrow's technologies

The strategy proposes a set of tools to support hydrogen research and innovation. To this end, a priority research programme "Hydrogen Applications" operated by the French National Research Agency will be put in place by the end of the year. This €65m programme aims to support research and the preparation of the future generation of hydrogen technologies (batteries, tanks, materials, electrolysers). The strategy also aims to develop skills by supporting the campus development of trades and professional qualifications. A budget of €30m will be allocated to this action.

Hydrogen was presented as an R&D priority in France’s 2018 multiannual energy programme (programmation pluriannuelle de l’énergie or “PPE”), the country's energy roadmap for the coming decade.

Measures for promoting hydrogen mentioned in the PPE are as follows:

• set up a €50m/year support for clean hydrogen and launch calls to call for projects on mobility and on hydrogen production using electrolysers;
• set up a traceability system for clean hydrogen in 2020;
• extend the extra depreciation measure on the purchase of hydrogen vehicles under at least the same conditions as for NGV (heavy vehicles>3.5t);
• mobilise financial institutions (private and public financing, including the Caisse de Dépôts et Consignations (CDC) and Bpifrance) and standardise co-financing models for projects which deploy ecosystems that pool various uses (mobility, industry, etc.) at the local level;
• conduct discussions with all players on simplifying and harmonising the licensing and certification procedures for boats and associated hydrogen fuelling solutions; and
• continue support for innovation, in particular to support industrialisation and scale-up of French stakeholders.