The FCH JU Stakeholders Assembly held in Brussels on October 26-27,  illustrated the impressive progress over the last 12 months in the development of  commercial hydrogen applications.  Honda’s key note speech demonstrated the commitment of car makers to the production of commercial fuel cell vehicles and Plug Power illustrated the steady progress in the commercialisation of stationary applications.  EU’s Research Commisisoner Janez Potocnic and DG TREN ‘s responsible unit director  Stefan Tostmann both mentioned the importance of the pioneering spirit of the European fuel cell and hydrogen industry in kicking off the first  European Industrial Initiative on energy as proposed by the EU Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan). The SET Plan is regarded the technology pillar of the EU ‘s energy and climante policy and the Commission estimated the budget needed for fuel cell and hydrogen development at around € 5 bln for 2013-2020.   

As also the new EU Transport policy for 2010 – 2020 is under way the EHA is gearing up  its national and local forces to inform politicians of the need to leverage funding to allow an even bigger budget to accelerate early markets.  The third edition in the series of joint strategy papers of the EHA and the German Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association, DWV will be dealing with this topic, illustrating the current status of primary energry sources  and how to make the best use of them when building the electric transport infrastructure. The paper will come out in time for the big EU Transport Confererece on November 20, the Fuel Cell Vehicle Parade in Copenhagen, co- organised by the EHA, on November 30, 2009 and last but not least the inauguration of a new EU Commission and EU president…..