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The Haralds of Hydrogen

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Floris Jacobus Adrianus de Klerk Wolters

Chapter 5: Activities and Influence Hydrogen Associations

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1Given the central role of hydrogen associations in this paper, it is useful to briefly consider their activities and the influence they have. For this, it helps to look at the six largest associations. These are Netzwerk Brennstoffzelle und Wasserstoff, Elektromobilität of the EnergieAgentur North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW; N=392, 23.47%), Hydrogen Europe (N=160, 9.58%), the Association française pour l’hydrogène et les piles à combustible – AFHYPAC (N=103, 6.17%), the Deutscher Wasserstoff- und Brennstoffzellen-Verband – DWV (N=85, 5.09%), Hydrogen Power Storage & Solutions East Germany – HYPOS (N=82, 4.91%) and the Plataforma Tecnológica Española del Hidrógeno y de las Pilas de Combustible – PTE-HPC (N=81, 4.85%). Together, they cover over 50% of the registrations.

2 Hydrogen Europe (2020) describes its two goals as those of a classical trade association and a supporter of innovation. In the former capacity, it is a channel for industry representation, lobbying and advocacy vis-à-vis policymakers. It also disseminates regulatory updates to members and shares best practices. Hydrogen Europe is represented both through its industry and its research arm as two of three members in the public-private partnership of the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU), with the European Commission as the third partner. FCH JU has a total budget of €1.33 billion over the period 2014-2022 (FCH JU, n.d.). The funding from the European Commission from its Horizon 2020 budget (topped up with a significantly smaller input from industry and research) translates into approximately €90-100 million invested annually directly into hydrogen projects (FCH JU, 2019d). This makes it an influential player in the European hydrogen environment, with frequently cited research output and well-attended annual stakeholder forums. FCH JU is also in turn one of the main drivers behind the idea of “hydrogen valleys”, or pioneering clusters of hydrogen in several regions, through its new project development assistance programme.

3Hydrogen Europe also cooperates with funding from FCH JU on the maintenance of a legal database called Hydrogen Law (HyLaw, 2020), which keeps a tab on legislation and regulation relevant to the commercialisation of hydrogen and fuel cell technology for 18 European countries. This database contains national policy recommendations and overviews of relevant policy processes. Hydrogen Europe thus cooperates quite closely with the European Commission to advocate and lobby decision-makers at various governance levels, and it also gives workshops oriented at different levels. The aim of these workshops is explicitly to convince public authorities to remove barriers.

4 The hydrogen & fuel cell network of EnergieAgentur NRW (2020), AFHYPAC (n.d.), HYPOS (n.d.), PTE (n.d.), and DWV (n.d.) all follow much the same model, although, apart from EnergieAgentur NRW, without the direct investment capacities that Hydrogen Europe has. All groups are involved in lobbying activities, coordinate among members to disseminate information on regulations and technology, and are involved in the organisation of regular conferences and the facilitation of shared projects. Like Hydrogen Europe, many have permanent staff members specifically involved in media and political advocacy. DWV is the most explicit in this, calling itself a leading lobby group, aiming to make its voice heard in politics, “securing the business environment needed by our industry”, and pursuing targeted lobbying activities in regular contact with political decisionmakers. Many of the other associations have less openly political goals, but in effect pursue similar goals.

5 This does not mean that these organisations are necessarily private. Most hydrogen associations are forms of public-private partnerships and have close ties to governments. EnergieAgentur NRW, despite being nominally independent, is closely tied to the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia, and HYPOS gets funding from the German federal government’s Zwanzig20 project. AFHYPAC receives money from the French government’s Agence de la transition écologique (ADEME) and has close ties to the Ministry of the Ecological and Inclusive Transition. PTE-HPC is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Moreover, many hydrogen associations cooperate with municipalities, regional authorities, universities, local development agencies, and other public institutions. A significant number of public organisations are full members. AFHYPAC is a good example, as it has a separate members list for these institutions. It ranges from federations of municipalities, departments, and metropolitan areas (e.g. Aix-Marseille, Grenoble, Montpellier, Nantes, Nice, Rouen), to all of the French regions except Corsica. This active participation of regional governments is further analysed in the analysis.

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