The plenary session on the second day of the European Hydrogen Energy Conference in Seville, chaired by the EHA, on March 13, featured impressive examples of integrated use of H@ and FC technologies in countries surrounding the Mare Nostrum. The Centre for Research and Technology, Hellas, in Thessaloniki, since many years, under the guidance of Dr. Athanasios Kostandopoulos, is working on establishing solar thermo chemical solutions that could supply fuel from the Mediterranean region using abundant solar energy in this regions and the abundance of CO2 in industrial  exhaust in Northern Europe. The produced “solar fuel” could then supply Europe with renewable fuel. Dr Kahlid Benhamou of Sahara Winds has been with NTI SfP funding is exploring  the industrial and energy context in Sub Saharan countries Morocco and Mauritania and  connecting the Saharan trade winds from Morocco to Senegal  to hydrogen production to serve certain industries. In this region, within reach of the European electricity grid, an expected yearly production of more than 4500 Full Load Hours can be derived at some sites, where wind measurements are being collected. Dr. Benhamou since 1993 has been building a network of local expertise in universities in Morocco and Mauritania to link hydrogen production to for example industrial potential to iron ore and phosphate (fertilizer) industry. He mentioned that large capacities of hydropower and increasingly wind power for example  in China are already linked to the fertilizer industry, that is mainly serving internal needs as China high export tariffs.

The second day also included a workshop on hydrogen refuelling station planning work that is being conducted by UC Davis and UC Arizona in the US as well as in the different national H2 Mobility initiatives in Germany, that also included first customer profiling to better position the first stations. The UK H2Mobility is currently identifying the actors that could be engaged in infrastructure deployment, while France is looking at the identification of captive fleets to accelerate roll out and to build first FCEV users hubs.