Speech by President von der Leyen at the Fourth Edition of the Renewable Hydrogen Summit, via video message
One year ago, many of you gathered here in Brussels for the very first Clean Transition Dialogue. We brought together the entire renewable hydrogen value chain — from electrolyser manufacturers to off-taker industries — to address one fundamental question: How do we scale Europe’s hydrogen market faster?
Today, I am proud to share how far we’ve come. In just 12 months, Europe has seen final investment decisions on over 2 gigawatts of renewable hydrogen projects. That’s four times our current installed capacity.
These decisions are more than milestones, they signal a new chapter. Projects that secure all necessary funding and permits are ready to break ground. Let me give you one example:
Stegra’s Boden steel plant in Sweden, supported by the European Innovation Fund, will soon be the largest renewable hydrogen project in the world. And it’s not alone. From Denmark to Romania, from Germany to Portugal, 10 other large-scale projects have also moved from concept to construction.
To put that into perspective, the United States saw just two such decisions during the same period. This illustrates European leadership in renewable hydrogen. In fact, investment in European hydrogen is set to grow by 140% in 2024, with Europe contributing nearly a third of global investments in electrolysers.
Renewable hydrogen is here, it is growing, and this is only the beginning.
So why is Europe leading? We set clear targets.
With REPowerEU, we put forward the ambition to produce 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen by 2030. And we backed that ambition with the first comprehensive legislative framework in the world.
Under the Renewable Energy Directive, at least 42% of hydrogen used in industry, and 29% in transport, must be renewable by 2030. These are binding targets we all agreed on. And Member States have until May 2025 to turn them into national law. If done right, this will be a game-changer, unlocking demand across the entire value chain. And encouraging hydrogen production to scale up across Europe.
Of course, big challenges remain. Not every project on paper makes it to the construction phase. But with every setback, we learn and improve. And there’s a lot of work ahead of us.
First, we need to accelerate the creation of clean lead markets. We are working closely with Member States and industry off-takers — from steel and chemical producers to transport and energy storage providers — to identify their priorities.
This will be a key part of the Clean Industrial Deal that the new European Commission will present in its first 100 days. We want to prioritise the infrastructure needed to connect large-scale hydrogen projects with end users. We will tap into Europe’s vast renewables potential and bring it to our industries to help them decarbonise.
This would significantly lower prices, not only for clean steel, cement, fuel and plastics, but also for fertilisers, glass, and a range of other hard-to-decarbonise sectors. The competitive benefits to European industry could be immense.
By 2030, for example, the price of a mid-sized electric car, built with clean steel, would be almost the same price as a car built with conventional steel. But this car would add almost no carbon to the atmosphere, neither in production nor in consumption. As demands shift towards cleaner solutions, companies investing in renewable hydrogen today will hold a clear market advantage.
My second point is: To meet this demand, we are determined to help you scale up hydrogen production. Last year, we created the European Hydrogen Bank – a first-of-its-kind initiative. The Bank offers a fixed premium for every kilogram of renewable hydrogen produced over the next decade. The results are already promising.
After our first auction, almost 700 million euros were disbursed to projects. They are set to deliver close to one-sixth of our hydrogen target this decade. And in December we will hold another auction, this time with 1.2 billion euros in funding. And we have added a critical new element:
A clause that specifically encourages the use of equipment from European companies. Because they are the very innovators that pioneered renewable hydrogen tech in the first place. This secures Europe’s energy independence. And this creates good jobs here in Europe.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Rome was not built in a day, and neither will a world-leading, climate-neutral European economy. But together, step by step, we are building it. And the European Commission is fully committed to staying the course.
I wish you all a productive summit. Thank you, and long live Europe.
READ the latest news shaping the hydrogen market at Hydrogen Central
Speech by President von der Leyen at the Fourth Edition of the Renewable Hydrogen Summit, via video message, source
