Small-scale Hydrogen Valley

Call updates

Apr 18, 2024 10:33:18 AM

CALL UPDATE: PROPOSAL NUMBERS

Call HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024 has closed on the 17/04/2024. 

151 proposals have been submitted.

The breakdown per topic is: 

HYDROGEN VALLEYS

-       HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-06-02: 17 proposals

Evaluation results are expected to be communicated in end of July – beginning August 2024

Mar 1, 2024 4:34:09 PM

The excel detailed budget table available in the submission system “Download Part B templates” section had incorrect funding rate options of 60% and 100%.

Today, the issue has been rectified and the excel detailed budget table is now displaying the correct funding rate options of 70% and 100%.

Please make sure you download and use the correct budget table in your submission.

Small-scale Hydrogen Valley

TOPIC ID: HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-06-02

Type of grant: Call for proposals

General information

Programme: Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)

Call: HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024 (HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024)

Type of action: HORIZON-JU-IA HORIZON JU Innovation Actions

Type of MGA: HORIZON Lump Sum Grant [HORIZON-AG-LS]

Status: Forthcoming

Deadline model: single-stage

Planned Opening Date: 18 January 2024

Deadline dates: 17 April 2024 17:00 (Brussels time)

Topic description

ExpectedOutcome:

Hydrogen Valleys are hydrogen ecosystems that cover a specific geography ranging from local or regional focus (e.g. industrial cluster, ports, airports, etc.) to specific national or international regions (e.g. cross border hydrogen corridors) [https://h2v.eu/media/7/download] Hydrogen Valleys showcase the versatility of hydrogen by supplying several sectors in their geography such as mobility, industry and energy end uses. They are ecosystems or clusters where various final applications share a common hydrogen supply infrastructure. Across their geographic scope, Hydrogen Valleys cover multiple steps in the hydrogen value chain, ranging from hydrogen production (and often even dedicated renewables production) to the subsequent storage of hydrogen and distribution to off-takers via various modes of transport. Whilst most of the projects are in the EU, over the past years, Hydrogen Valleys have gone global, with new projects emerging worldwide. Mission Innovation has set a target of deploying 100 large-scale Hydrogen Valleys worldwide by 2030.

Hydrogen Valleys are starting to form the first regional "hydrogen economies”. Already under the previous programme, the Clean Hydrogen Partnership provided support to several Hydrogen Valleys across different locations in EU and of different sizes. It is however necessary to continue the accelerated deployment of Hydrogen Valleys as required by RePowerEU (with a target to double the number of hydrogen valleys by 2025) and to contribute to the objectives of the European Hydrogen Strategy, the EU Green Deal, and Fit for 55, and finally overcome common challenges linked to storage and distribution that may be territory specific. To do this it is necessary to have ‘testbed’ projects to act as first real-life cases for piloting global hydrogen markets. These projects need to be expanded in scale to demonstrate the full range of benefits from the use of hydrogen.

Project results are expected to contribute to all the following expected outcomes:

• Anchorage of new demand for renewable hydrogen;
• Full integration into the broader energy ecosystem;
• Improvement of the perception of public towards hydrogen technologies, by ensuring a high visibility of the project and associated technologies to the local public and EU citizens;
• Emergence of new hydrogen valleys, through dissemination of learnings.

Scope:

The scope of this flagship topic is to develop and demonstrate a small-scale Hydrogen Valley. It could demonstrate a combination of technologies either in existing and/or new markets for clean hydrogen, especially when applications are used in symbiose with each other.

Proposals should demonstrate innovative approaches at system level: global and synergetic integration of hydrogen production (not restricted to electrolysis), distribution and end-use technologies. Proposals may also investigate interoperability, cause-effect stability of the overall system. Technologies demonstrated should be state-of the-art following technological developments previously funded by (but not limited to) the Clean Hydrogen Partnership.

Proposals should respond to the following requirements:

• Production of at least 500 tonnes of clean hydrogen per year using new hydrogen production capacity [As defined in the SRIA of the Clean Hydrogen JU, clean hydrogen refers to renewable hydrogen. For the purpose of the demonstration addressed in the proposal it can be foreseen that in the early stages low carbon hydrogen could be used. However, the objective is to move to renewable or clean hydrogen as an ultimate objective in the project. Please refer to the paragraph Rationale for support of the section 3.7 of the SRIA of the Clean Hydrogen JU], [Renewable hydrogen is hydrogen produced using renewable energy (Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001/EU)]. Due to the large volumes of hydrogen involved, production plants may be distributed across the territories involved but should share common hydrogen supply infrastructure;
• Use of the hydrogen produced to supply more than one end sector or application in the energy, industry, and transport sectors;
• Monitoring and assessment activities including at least two years of operations;
• Provision of a clear, professional, and ambitious communication plan to ensure high visibility to the public including clear, measurable and ambitious KPIs;
• Demonstration of how hydrogen enables sector coupling, allows large integration of renewable energy [In line with the definitions provided in the Renewable Energy Directive 2018/2001/EU] and provides an optimum techno economic solution for the decarbonisation of the activities in the geographical area being addressed;
• Reduction of the carbon emissions and impact on air quality related to the end-uses compared to incumbent technologies;
• Demonstration of how financial viability is expected to be reached after two years of operation.

More broadly, proposals should:

• Provide concrete project implementation plans with a clear calendar, defining the key phases of the implementation of the action (i.e., preparation of the specifications of equipment, manufacturing, permitting, deployment, and operation) and their duration;
• Provide a funding plan to ensure implementation of the project in synergies with other sources of funding. If no other sources of funding will be required, this should be stated clearly in the proposal, with a commitment from the partners to provide own funding. If additional sources of funding will be required, proposals should present a clear plan on which funding programmes at EU and/or national levels will be targeted [Including applications for funding planned, applications for funding submitted and funding awarded]. In these cases, applicants should present a credible planning that includes forecasted funding programmes and their expected time of commitment;
• Clearly and coherently present the Hydrogen Valley (across the whole value chain including hydrogen production, distribution and storage and end uses) including the investments/actions supported directly by this topic as well as other investments/actions supported by other funding /financing sources [In the context of the topic other investments/actions refer to parts of the hydrogen valley which are necessary to respond to the topic requirements and to deliver a fully functional hydrogen valley but that are not supported with the funding of the Clean Hydrogen JU (e.g. hydrogen production plant supported with national funding or HRS supported with funding from the Connecting Europe Facility – Transport (CEF-T))] which are part of the hydrogen valley to be deployed and demonstrated in line with the topic requirements;
• Provide evidence of the commitment and role of public authorities (Member States, Regions and Cities) and of any other necessary stakeholders (e.g. hydrogen off-takers) at least in the form of Letters of Intent (LOI) should be provided. The practical implementation of these LOI will be followed during the Grant Agreement implementatio
• Provide a preliminary ‘hydrogen safety planning and management plan’ [In the context of this topic this refers to an early plan indicating how safety will be managed in the project https://www.clean-hydrogen.europa.eu/get-involved/european-hydrogen-safety-panel-0/reference-documents_en] at the project level, which will be further updated during project implementation;
• Ensure coverage of aspects such as replicability and cooperation between regions to facilitate transfer of knowledge across the EU with a focus on fostering replication of Hydrogen Valleys elsewhere;
• Demonstrate how synergies with existing hydrogen valleys will be ensured especially when it comes to skills and know-how exchange;
• Provide a scalability analysis that includes the broader energy system showing how the valley is expected to grow, where applicable;
• Highlight sustainability aspects in their description.

The costs for the construction and commissioning phase of the hydrogen production technologies including connection (e.g connection to the electricity grid, electricity costs) may be funded while costs of renewable energy plants (e.g., PV or wind plant) or related costs for operation of the Hydrogen Valley (e.g., electricity for electrolysers) will not be funded.

This topic is expected to contribute to EU competitiveness and industrial leadership by supporting a European value chain for hydrogen technologies’ systems and components.

It is expected that Guarantees of origin (GOs) will be used to prove the renewable character of the hydrogen that is produced. In this respect consortium may seek out the issuance and subsequent cancellation of GOs from the relevant Member State issuing body and if that is not yet available the consortium may proceed with the issuance and cancellation of non-governmental certificates (e.g CertifHy).

Proposals are expected to contribute towards the activities of the EU Mission on Climate- Neutral and Smart Cities, Mission Innovation 2.0 - Clean Hydrogen Mission and the H2V platform. Cooperation with entities from Clean Hydrogen Mission member countries, which are neither EU Member States nor Horizon Europe Associated countries, is encouraged (see section 2.2.6.7 International Cooperation).

For additional elements applicable to all topics please refer to section 2.2.3.2.

The TRL of the applications in the project should be at least 6 at the beginning of the project while the overall concept should target a TRL 8 at the end of the project - see General Annex B.

At least one partner in the consortium must be a member of either Hydrogen Europe or Hydrogen Europe Research.

The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 9.00 million – proposals requesting Clean Hydrogen JU contributions above this amount will not be evaluated.

Purchases of equipment, infrastructure or other assets used for the action must be declared as depreciation costs. However, for the following equipment, infrastructure or other assets purchased specifically for the action (or developed as part of the action tasks): hydrogen production plant, distribution and storage infrastructure and hydrogen end-uses, costs may exceptionally be declared as full capitalised costs.

The conditions related to this topic are provided in the chapter 2.2.3.2 of the Clean Hydrogen JU 2024 Annual Work Plan and in the General Annexes to the Horizon Europe Work Programme 2023–2024 which apply mutatis mutandis.

Specific Topic Conditions:

Activities are expected to start at TRL 6 and achieve TRL 8 by the end of the project - See General Annex B.

General conditions

1. Admissibility conditions: described in Annex Aand Annex E of the Horizon Europe Work Programme General Annexes

For all Innovation Actions the page limit of the application is 70 pages.

Proposal page limits and layout: described in Part B of the Application Form available in the Submission System.

Page limit for Innovation Actions

For all Innovation Actions the page limit of the applications are 70 pages.

2. Eligible countries: described in Annex Bof the Work Programme General Annexes

A number of non-EU/non-Associated Countries that are not automatically eligible for funding have made specific provisions for making funding available for their participants in Horizon Europe projects. See the information in the Horizon Europe Programme Guide.

3. Other eligibility conditions: described in Annex B of the Work Programme General Annexes

Additional eligibility condition: Maximum contribution per topic

For some topics, in line with the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA, an additional eligibility criterion has been introduced to limit the Clean Hydrogen JU requested contribution mostly for actions performed at high TRL level, including demonstration in real operational environment and with important involvement from industrial stakeholders and/or end users such as public authorities. Such actions are expected to leverage co-funding as commitment from stakeholders. It is of added value that such leverage is shown through the private investment in these specific topics. Therefore, proposals requesting contributions above the amounts specified per each topic below will not be evaluated:

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-01-05: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 10.00 million

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-02-03: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 6.00 million

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-02-04: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 6.00 million

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-02-05: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 8.00 million

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-03-04: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 5.00 million

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-04-01: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 5.00 million

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-06-01: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 20.00 million

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-06-02: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 9.00 million

Additional eligibility condition: Membership to Hydrogen Europe / Hydrogen Europe Research

For some topics, in line with the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA, an additional eligibility criterion has been introduced to ensure that one partner in the consortium is a member of either Hydrogen Europe or Hydrogen Europe Research. This concerns topics targeting actions for large-scale demonstrations, flagship projects and strategic research actions, where the industrial and research partners of the Clean Hydrogen JU are considered to play a key role in accelerating the commercialisation of hydrogen technologies by being closely linked to the Clean Hydrogen JU constituency, which could further ensure full alignment with the SRIA of the JU. This approach shall also ensure the continuity of the work performed within projects funded through the H2020 and FP7, by building up on their experience and consolidating the EU value-chain. In the Call 2024 this applies to the demonstration of innovative hydrogen production for energy intensive industries and the chemical sectors, demonstration of innovative technologies for the distribution of hydrogen including multi-purpose hydrogen refueling infrastructure, demonstration of hydrogen-powered inland shipping or short sea shipping solutions. This will also apply to the two Hydrogen Valley topics as they are considered of strategic importance for the European Union ambitions to double the number of Hydrogen Valleys by 2025. For these flagship topics large amount of co-investment/co-funding of project participants/beneficiaries including national and regional programmes is expected. This applies to the following topics:

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-01-05

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-02-03

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-02-04

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-02-05

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-03-04

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-04-01

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-06-01

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-06-02

The following additional eligibility criteria apply: At least one partner in the consortium must be a member of either Hydrogen Europe or Hydrogen Europe Research.

The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 9.00 million – proposals requesting Clean Hydrogen JU contributions above this amount will not be evaluated.

4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion: described in Annex C of the Work Programme General Annexes

5.Evaluation and award:

• Award criteria, scoring and thresholds are described in Annex Dof the Work Programme General Annexes

• Submission and evaluation processes are described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes and the Online Manual

Seal of Excellence:

For the two topics in the Call 2024 addressing Hydrogen Valleys, the ‘Seal of Excellence’ will be awarded to applications exceeding all of the evaluation thresholds set out in this Annual Work Programme but cannot be funded due to lack of budget available to the call. This will further improve the chances of good proposals, otherwise not selected, to find alternative funding in other Union programmes, including those managed by national or regional Managing Authorities. With prior authorisation from the applicants, the Clean Hydrogen JU may share information concerning the proposal and the evaluation with interested financing authorities. In this Annual Work Programme ‘Seal of Excellence’ will be awarded for the following topic(s):

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-06-01

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-06-02

Seals of Excellence will be awarded to applications exceeding all of the evaluation thresholds set out in this work programme, but cannot be funded due to lack of budget available to the call.

• Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement: described in Annex F of the Work Programme General Annexes

6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants: described in Annex G of the Work Programme General Annexes

In addition to the standard provisions, the following specific provisions in the model grant agreement will apply:

1. Lump Sum

This year’s call for proposals will take the form of lump sums as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021- 2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025). Lump sums will be used across all topics in the Call 2024.

2. Full capitalised costs for purchases of equipment, infrastructure or other assets purchased specifically for the action

For some topics, in line with the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA, mostly large-scale demonstrators or flagship projects specific equipment, infrastructure or other assets purchased specifically for the action (or developed as part of the action tasks) can exceptionally be declared as full capitalised costs. This concerns the topics below:

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-01-05

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-02-03

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-02-04

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-02-05

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-03-04

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-04-01

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-06-01

- HORIZON-JTI-CLEANH2-2024-06-02

3. Subcontracting

For all topics: an additional obligation regarding subcontracting has been introduced, namely that subcontracted work may only be performed in target countries set out in the call conditions.

The beneficiaries must ensure that the subcontracted work is performed in the countries set out in the call conditions.

The target countries are all Member States of the European Union and all Associated Countries.

Purchases of equipment, infrastructure or other assets used for the action must be declared as depreciation costs. However, for the following equipment, infrastructure or other assets purchased specifically for the action (or developed as part of the action tasks): hydrogen production plant, distribution and storage infrastructure and hydrogen end-uses, costs may exceptionally be declared as full capitalised costs.

Eligible costs will take the form of a lump sum as defined in the Decision of 7 July 2021 authorising the use of lump sum contributions under the Horizon Europe Programme – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – and in actions under the Research and Training Programme of the European Atomic Energy Community (2021-2025). [[This decision is available on the Funding and Tenders Portal, in the reference documents section for Horizon Europe, under ‘Simplified costs decisions’ or through this link: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/horizon/guidance/ls-decision_he_en.pdf]].

Specific conditions

7. Specific conditions: described in the chapter 2.2.3.2 of the Clean Hydrogen JU 2024 Annual Work Programme

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