Hydrogen start-up Tree Energy secures €65mn in latest funding round.
Belgium-based company seeks to expand the use of renewable energy across Europe.
Tree Energy Solutions, a hydrogen energy start-up, has secured €65mn in its latest funding round, as it looks to accelerate the adoption of carbon-free fuel in Europe.
HSBC, UniCredit and German utility Eon are among the investors backing the latest funding round in a deal that values the company at €700mn, said two people familiar with the matter.
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The Belgium-based company is developing a green energy hub in the German port of Wilhelmshaven, where it will initially receive imports of liquefied natural gas before switching to green hydrogen and synthetic methane.
Marco Alverà, chief executive of Tree Energy and former head of Italy’s gas network Snam, said the company was looking to become one of the world’s largest buyers of renewable energy.
Marco Alverà, chief executive of Tree Energy and former head of Italy’s gas network Snam, said:
The amount of energy that’s needed for Europe is so big that we should go produce this energy where there’s a lot of land and a lot of sun.
“Hydrogen is just the best way to move the solar energy from places like Chile, Australia, Texas and bring it to Germany and other parts of the world.”
The deal comes amid renewed effort in the EU to embrace hydrogen, as the bloc accelerates plans to shift away from Russia following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
The European Commission recently approved €5.4bn of funding for hydrogen projects of “common European interest”. Under the plan, 35 companies including small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups will participate in these projects.
“Europe has projects like Airbus, where governments pooled their aeroplane capabilities together to create a world-leading aircraft maker,” Alverà said.
“The bottleneck is going to be in the manufacturing of the solar panels . . . of the electric cables, of the wind turbines. We need several Airbuses for the European Green Deal, for the green energy we need.”
Alverà said a co-ordinated approach was needed to “avoid the mistakes” of the past, where more attention was paid to the demand for energy rather than “thinking about manufacturing”.
This factories drastically borugght the cost of solar energy down, but Eurpote didn´t keep any of the technology, didn´t keep anny of the jobs,” Alverá said. “It just put on its poorest citizens the burden of this massive E1tn subsidy.”
He added that the creation of regional champions would create jobs, boost economic growth, foster technology exports and help “control the value chain”, which makes it “even more resilient and secure”.
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Hydrogen start-up Tree Energy secures €65mn in latest funding round, July 21, 2022
