Meeting of the Austrian and Greek Hydrogen Valley representatives at the Green Energy Center Europe in Innsbruck

Publish Date: July 18, 2024

The Hydrogen Valley experience and knowledge exchange between the TRIĒRĒS Consortium and the Austrian WIVA P&G HyWest Consortium took place in a workshop at the Green Energy Center Europe in Innsbruck, Austria, on the 10th of July 2024.

After a welcome note by Ernst Fleischhacker, founder of Green Energy Center Europe, in the first part of this workshop, Nikolaus Fleischhacker and Niusha Shakibi Nia from FEN Research presented the WIVA P&G HyWest hydrogen valley initiative and outcomes as well as the establishment of regional green hydrogen economy, focusing on three ongoing complementary regional projects:

  • “Green Hydrogen for MPREIS, Tyrol and Europe” (MPREIS Hydrogen), initiated in the frame of the European project “Demo4Grid” and ongoing since 2016.
  • “Hydrogen Valley Zillertal” starting with the “Zillertalbahn 2020+ energy autonomous with hydrogen project ongoing since 2017.
  • “Power2X Kufstein”, construction of an innovative sector coupling power to X (P2X) plant ongoing since 2018.

This first part was followed by an introduction to HyWest poster session and further presentation of ongoing projects of FEN Research at national and international levels. During the poster session, TRIĒRĒS consortium had also the opportunity to drive a Hyundai NEXO fuel cell electric (FCE) hydrogen car from the Green Energy Center Europe’s Codex partner.

In the second part of this workshop, national, regional and local framework and regulations, were discussed with invited speaker Magdalena Lindl, cluster management of Hydrogen Partnership Austria (HyPA). The WIVA P&G Energy Flagship Region – European hydrogen valley of the year 2023 – and their ongoing projects were presented by invited speaker Margherita Matzer, from the WIVA P&G team and was further completed by an introduction to H2 Brenner Valley, Transalpine Hydrogen Ecosystem from the European Hydrogen Backbone (EHB) initiative by Nikolaus Fleischhacker. The overview of current ongoing activities regarding hydrogen gas engines from INNIO Jenbacher, by invited speaker Abdessamad Saidi, was showcased as well.

The TRIĒRĒS project aims to create a “Small Scale Hydrogen Valley” with geographical reference to Motor Oil Refinery of Ag. Theodoroi in Corinth. The collaboration with the national WIVA P&G HyWest Hydrogen Valley is planned through FEN Research , Codex partner and representative of the Green Energy Center Europe . This regional hydrogen valley will be used as a model for the development of a largely autonomous regional green hydrogen economy based on the logistics principle.