Hy2Market Regional Highlight: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France

The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region is one of the participating regions in the Hy2Market Consortium, where the French partner, Compagnie Nationale du Rhône (CNR), represents the region. CNR is France’s leading producer of 100% renewable electricity with a total installed capacity of 4GW (3.1 GW of hydro, 735 MW of wind and 135MW of solar).

VENSOLAIR, an expert in the development of renewable energies and a full affiliate of CNR group, develops an electrolyser located next to CNR’s hydropower plant of Pierre-Bénite (Rhône department) that will supply green electricity to produce renewable hydrogen from water electrolysis. A pipeline will be built to link the electrolyser to the industrial customers in the Rhône Valley. In the Hy2Market project, VENSOLAIR will consider different solutions for the pipeline including SoluForce, a provider for the flexible composite pipes (FCP), and local French SMEs to find the optimal deployment plan, including regulatory affairs, for the pipeline network.

The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region is at the forefront of hydrogen technology in France, both for mobility and for decarbonising the regional industries. The Region has invested €15 millions to develop the hydrogen sector and aims at having 15% of hydrogen production capacity in the territories by 2030. It has been also recently awarded by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership for the call 2023 Hydrogen Valley large scale, through the project IMAGHyNE. The IMAGHyNE project brings together more than 40 French and European partners in 6 different countries (France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Switzerland). The 6-year project (2024-2029) has a budget of €200 million and a total grant of €20 million from the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. In hydrogen mobility, the aim is to deploy more than 100 heavy-duty vehicles as well as 20 hydrogen filling stations in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.