The North Adriatic Hydrogen Valley (NAHV), a Horizon Europe project supported by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership, is a response to an initiative launched by the industry players of the target region, who requested a coordinated action for the evolution of a cross-regional innovation ecosystem at the first Ecosystem North Adriatic Conference in Nova Gorica in autumn 2021. The initiative builds further on the signed agreement of early 2022, by representatives of the Slovenian Ministry of Infrastructure, the Croatian Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, and the Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) Autonomous Region in Italy, to jointly contribute to the European Green Deal and European Hydrogen Strategy goals. On 14th March 2022 the Slovenian State Secretary of the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Croatian State Secretary of the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, and the President of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region signed a joint letter of intent (LoI) in which they recognised the relevance of regional cooperation and a cross-border hydrogen valley in boosting energy transition and promoting sectorial integration between transport, hard-to-abate industries, and end users in an integrated ecosystem. With this LoI the three signatories jointly committed to implementing a common innovation agenda and cooperation projects to accelerate the deployment of hydrogen-based solutions, strengthening local hydrogen ecosystems and building inter-regional value chains. The three territories which constitute the NAHV, FVG (Italy), Slovenia and Croatia, have been considered by the European Hydrogen Backbone as one part of the larger pan-European hydrogen supply and import corridors, which will connect industrial clusters, ports, and hydrogen valleys to regions of abundant hydrogen supply.
To fulfil these objectives, the NAHV project involves a well-rooted partnership of 37 organisations (of which two are in Hydrogen Europe, and three in Hydrogen Europe Research), covering the transnational Central European area of three territories – Slovenia, Croatia and the FVG Region, demonstrating cross-border integration of hydrogen production, distribution and consumption, and building up capacities for an annual hydrogen production of over 5000 tons of which over 20% is expected to be exchanged within the area of the NAHV.
The project will activate 17 testbed applications in their related ecosystems, clustered in three main pillars – hard-to-abate industries and the energy and transport sectors. These will act as real-life cases for piloting global hydrogen markets, moving from Technology Readiness level (TRL) 6 at the beginning to TRL 8 by the end of the project.
Four fuel cell applications in the energy and transport sectors will be demonstrated. Testbeds will then be scaled up to the industrial level as a replicable model, contributing to the decarbonisation of the three territories by harnessing renewables to improve system resilience, security of supply, and energy independence.
Replicability will also be ensured for the whole NAHV model, with the uptake of at least five additional hydrogen valleys in Europe, particularly in Central and South-Eastern Europe.
