On June 16, 2026, the Green Energy Center Europe (GEC) in Innsbruck celebrated its tenth anniversary. Together with long-standing Codex Partner Hyundai Austria, the organization presented the Hyundai All-New NEXO and reflected on ten years of hydrogen mobility development along the Brenner Corridor.
The event deliberately revisited the circumstances under which the Green Energy Center Europe was opened in 2016. At that time, the GEC was inaugurated during the first hydrogen vehicle journey from Bergen in Norway via Innsbruck to Bolzano in Italy. Along the Brenner Corridor, three hydrogen refueling stations were available: Munich, Innsbruck – as a central hub between north-south and east-west routes – and Bolzano.
Ten years later, the public hydrogen refuelling station in Innsbruck has closed. However, a new press trip has been organised to connect Innsbruck and the Institute for Innovative Technologies (IIT) in Bolzano. The visit focused on the lessons learned over the past decade, the strategic importance of the Brenner Corridor for European hydrogen mobility and the future deployment of hydrogen refuelling infrastructure in accordance with the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR).
The Green Energy Center Europe Codex Partnership follows a privately organized implementation model. Industrial companies, start-ups, research organizations, public institutions, and individuals cooperate in different roles while pursuing common long-term objectives. The underlying assumption is that complex infrastructure transformations cannot be successfully delivered by either public institutions or private companies alone.
Over the last decade, the partnership has contributed to the development of four major initiatives for implementing a green hydrogen economy. These are: the Hydrogen Highway along the Brenner Corridor; Green Hydrogen for MPREIS in Tyrol and across Europe; the Zillertalbahn 2020+ project, which aims to make the railway energy autonomous using hydrogen; and the Power2X Langkampfen concept. These initiatives are all part of the HyWest research area, which is spearheading the transition to a green hydrogen economy and supporting the ‘Tyrol 2050 Energy Autonomous’ strategy. This strategy aims to make the energy system climate-neutral and autonomous.
These implementation initiatives were supported by numerous national and European research and innovation projects, including WIVA P&G HyWest, HyTrain, HyBus, Demo4Grid, FLEXI, REINFORCE, H2CoVE, and others.
Several implementation projects have experienced delays, restructuring, or cancellation. The closure of the public hydrogen station in Innsbruck and the discontinuation of the Zillertalbahn 2020+ hydrogen implementation project demonstrate the challenges associated with large-scale infrastructure transformation at the macro-system level.
At the same time, operational know-how, infrastructure components, partnerships, and implementation experience have continued to grow within the Green Energy Center Europe Living Lab.
Today, the Living Lab combines hydrogen mobility, local hydrogen production, infrastructure operation, training, research, and system integration within a real-world micro-energy system. This environment allows technologies and organizational approaches to be tested under practical operating conditions rather than under laboratory assumptions.
An additional milestone was presented during the anniversary event. New research infrastructure developed by Codex partners FEN Research and EDC-Anlagentechnik has been integrated into the Living Lab of the Green Energy Centre Europe. Thanks to this infrastructure, green hydrogen can now be produced, compressed and stored on-site at the Green Energy Centre Europe in a quality-assured manner. It can also be utilised and researched within the broader context of the energy system in line with demand as part of the transition towards a climate-neutral, autonomous energy system. Alongside the new Hyundai All-New NEXO hydrogen vehicles operated by FEN Systems, these assets create a locally operated demonstration system for the production and utilisation of renewable hydrogen for mobility.
The Hyundai All-New NEXO therefore represents more than the next generation of fuel-cell vehicles. It symbolizes the continuation of a long-term learning, investment, and implementation process that began ten years ago on the Brenner Hydrogen Corridor.
Participants agreed that the reconstruction of the energy system towards climate neutrality and autonomy requires long-term commitment, operational learning processes, and reliable infrastructure. The Green Energy Center Europe Living Lab will continue to serve as an open space for experimentation, cooperation, and practical implementation.
The anniversary event demonstrated that setbacks at the macro-system level do not necessarily stop progress. Instead, they reinforce the importance of resilient partnerships, operational learning environments, and responsibility-driven cooperation.
As the Green Energy Center Europe Codex Partnership often states:
The performance of a system is not determined by the number of its participants, but by the quality of the connections between its responsibility holders.
Target convergence does not begin with the equality of actors, but with the understanding of their differences.