Flanders doubles subsidies for hydrogen trucks.
Flanders supports companies that want to invest in sustainable heavy transport, such as trucks or buses that run on electricity and hydrogen. The support for fossil alternatives, such as CNG and LNG, are being scrapped for this. This leaves Flemish Minister of Economy and Innovation Jo Brouns.
92 tons less CO2 emissions per truck
The Ecology Premium+, which can be applied for at the Flemish Agency for Innovation en Ondernemen (VLAIO), supports companies that make ecology investments in the Flemish Region.
Only investments that appear on an exhaustive list of standardized ecology technologies are eligible. Minister Jo Brons now announces that this exhaustive technology list is being expanded so that companies are supported to invest in sustainable heavy transport.
In concrete terms, this concerns: Electric trucks and buses, trucks with a hydrogen fuel cell, dual-fuel engines (hydrogen-diesel) for trucks and container lifts.
It is estimated that these ecology technologies can deliver a achieve a reduction of 92 tons of CO2 emissions per year. In comparison: this votes corresponds to the planting of almost 8 hectares of forest per truck.
Support and accelerate sustainable transport
Until recently, trucks with CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) or LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) supported via the ecology premium, because these are more sustainable than conventional diesel engines.
But these gas-based technologies are now becoming removed from the exhaustive technology list and are therefore no longer eligible for the support through the ecology premium of VLAIO.
This frees up more financial space to support sustainable heavy transport. Electric vehicles are currently the most sustainable and so will come in from now on eligible for the ecology premium. The average support is € 125,000 for one truck and € 148,500 for one bus.
Also the conversion of diesel engines to dual-fuel engines (with hydrogen injection) are eligible. For this, the subsidy is an average of € 36,000. A truck equipped with a hydrogen fuel cell can count on an ecology premium of approximately € 90,000.
To give as many companies as possible the opportunity to use these technologies experiment, the ecology premium+ per applicant is limited to a maximum of two trucks on electricity, two buses on electricity and two trucks on hydrogen.
This also leaves financial scope for smaller SMEs and companies to experiment with this sustainable transition in the transport sector. The support is can also be combined with federal measures.
Jo Brouns, Flemish Minister of Economy and Innovation said:
As a Flemish government, we want to fully committed to that sustainable transition, away from fossil fuels.
“The adjustments that we are now making are therefore logical to ensure sustainable heavy transport such as trucks and buses that run on electricity or hydrogen instead of on CNG or LNG. In this way we also want to help SMEs to make sustainable choices.”
Lode Verkinderen, director of TLV (Transport and Logistics Flanders), said:
With the new Flanders supports subsidies for trucks on batteries or hydrogen, just like the neighboring countries pioneering transporters who initiate decarbonisation.
“At TLV we are very satisfied with this first important step. Together with the Flemish government, we want to we will continue to do the necessary in the coming years to accelerate the energy transition to make.”
Andreas Cremer, CEO of Automotive Federation FEBIAC, said:
The sector wants to completely decarbonize motorized transport by road and is bringing… battery-electric and hydrogen trucks on the market for this.
“At the same time, we have to watch out for competitiveness of our economy. Our first simulations show that the package of federal and Flemish measures for the promotion of zero-emission freight vehicles allow to almost half of the additional cost of zero-emission trucks.”
“The extension of the ecology premium is therefore an important step. FEBIAC advocates structural measures that makes the switch to low and zero-emission freight transport possible.”
READ the latest news shaping the hydrogen market at Hydrogen Central
Flanders invests in sustainability transport via ecology premium+, June 8, 2022
