On March 16th
and 17th we had great two
days of collaboration and inspiration during the official launch of the Interreg
North-West Europe project ValHyCon in Zeebrugge.
ValHyCon brings together a unique
consortium of eight key players from across Northwest Europe, each actively
developing a Hydrogen Valley - local ecosystems that integrate hydrogen
production, transport, storage, and end-use. These valleys act as growth hubs
for scaling up hydrogen deployment, contributing to Europe’s ambition of
establishing 100 hydrogen valleys in the near future.
ValHyCon recognizes that strong transnational collaboration is crucial to
accelerating the development of hydrogen valleys. By bringing partners
together, the project creates opportunities to share knowledge, exchange best
practices, and learn from one another. In doing so, it helps address common
challenges more effectively and amplifies the collective impact of all
participating regions.
🔹 Project objectives:
• Exchange and document best practices and lessons learned
• Launch concrete pilot initiatives for cross-border collaboration
• Develop a coordinated long-term strategy to physically connect hydrogen
valleys
During the kick-off all partners shared insights into their regional
ecosystems. It was inspiring to see the diversity of initiatives, strong
ambitions, and commitment to move forward with realistic goals beyond the
hydrogen hype.
A highlight of the event was the visit to the HyOff Wind project - a 25
MW electrolyser plant developed by Virya Energy and Messer Technische
Gase - offering a tangible glimpse into large-scale renewable hydrogen
production in practice.
A special thank you to the Port of Antwerp-Bruges for the warm
welcome and to Interreg North-West Europe (NWE) for making this project
possible.
We are convinced that hydrogen will play an important role in decarbonising
industry and energy systems, while also strengthening Europe’s energy
independence. This is especially evident today, as the importance of
reducing reliance on geopolitically unstable regions has become increasingly
clear.
Looking forward to the next steps with this energetic consortium!