Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking : consolidated annual activity report year 2024

The year 2024 saw a year of important developments for the Clean Hydrogen JU, continuing built on the achievements of previous years and intensifying the efforts on hydrogen valleys. With a total operational commitment of EUR 203 million, and the launch of 22 new projects, the overall portfolio reached a total number of 147 projects under active management towards the end of the year. The budget execution reached the outstanding level of 98% in for commitments and 84% in payments, in line with previous year, showing the JU's continued effort to use the available credits. In 2024, the JU launched a call for proposals with a budget of EUR 113.5 million covering R&I activities across the whole hydrogen value chain, to which was added an amount of EUR 60 million from the RePowerEU plan focusing on hydrogen valleys. That amount served for valleys-related grants and the "Hydrogen Valleys Facility" tender designed for project development assistance that will support Hydrogen Valleys at different levels of maturity. The Hydrogen Valleys concept has become a key instrument for the European Commission to scale up hydrogen technology deployment and establish interconnections between hydrogen ecosystems. At the end of 2024, the Clean Hydrogen JU has already funded 20 hydrogen valleys. This support was complemented by additional credits from third countries and the optimal use- of leftover credits from previous years, allowing the award of 29 new grants from the call for 2024.