Fueling the Future – Countdown to the European Hydrogen Week 2025

The European Hydrogen week is a relatively young initiative celebrated every year since 2020 in Brussels (Belgium), organized by the European commission, Hydrogen Europa and The Clean Hydrogen Partnership (EHW2020). It has a predecessor: the Hydrogen or “Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Day”, which is celebrated yearly in the United States of America on October 8th. It was initiated in 2015 by the U.S. organisation the Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association (FCHEA) to raise awareness of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. The date 10/08 was chosen because the standard atomic weight of hydrogen is approximately 1.008 (FCHEA).

The goal of this initiative is to unite industry leaders, policymakers, startups, researchers and other key stakeholder within a suitable environment to tackle strategic targets and push forward European ambitions related to hydrogen. The focus will be placed on, firstly, to conscience them about the growing need to decarbonise energy-intensive sectors, meet climate targets under the Green Deal, and build competitive clean-energy industries. Secondly to generate synergies to accelerate research and innovation in clean hydrogen technologies that can help scaling-up clean hydrogen market uptake. In third place, to align national, regional and EU policies to stablish clear regulatory frameworks and funding schemes to make Europe more competitive globally in green hydrogen. Finally, to mobilise investment, spur deployment of large-scale hydrogen projects and infrastructure, foster H2 Valleys (regional clusters of hydrogen production + use).

At the European level, the engagement of key actors is important since hydrogen is seen as a keystone for achieving Europe’s climate goals, especially those closely related to “hard-to-abate” industrial sectors such as steel, ceramics and chemicals; and to heavy transport including shipping, aviation and road freight; and for energy storage / balancing and renewables. To do that, Europe has set targets such as implementing large electrolysers, defining what qualifies as “green” or “clean” hydrogen, funding innovation under Horizon Europe and other programmes, and creating policy instruments (grants, regulatory frameworks) to reduce risks for hydrogen investments. In PHOTOSINT, we are hands on that! We focus our research on the design, validation and implementation of sustainable photoelectrocatalytic-based alternatives processes for the production of hydrogen and methanol as energy vectors using sunlight as an energy source and wastewater and CO2 as feedstocks (CORDIS - EU research results).

In 2025, European Hydrogen Week is happening 29 September to 3 October in Brussels (EHW2025). One highlight is the EU Hydrogen Innovation Forum on 2-3 October, under the theme “Driving Europe’s Competitiveness and Market Uptake with R&I in Clean Hydrogen Technologies.” Key topics there include empowering startups and scale-ups, showcasing innovative hydrogen SMEs, exploring synergies in EU / national / regional funding programmes, investment and skills. Other events in that week include high-level policy panels, networking sessions, technical forums for projects to present their work, exhibition of EU projects under Clean Hydrogen Partnership, discussions around regulatory & certification frameworks, and the Clean Hydrogen JU Awards

References:

1. WEBSITE: EHW2020 - European Hydrogen Week 2020
2. WEBSITE: FCHEA - Fuel Cell and Energy Agency Association.
3. WEBSITE: CORDIS – EU Research results -  PHOTOSINT: Photoelectrocatalytic systems for solar fuels energy integration into the industry with local resources.
4. WEBSITE: EHW2025 - European Hydrogen week 2025