This past month has given way to new developments in the visibility of hydrogen in Europe. The Commission communication published on November 17, 2010, Energy infrastructure priorities for 2020 and beyond – A Blueprint for an integrated European energy network, refers to hydrogen used in electricity storage applications and the needs to build hydrogen transport infrastructure by 2015-2020 and aims to link SET plan renewable energy initiatives to new transmission, storage and smart grid technologies. The Commission has overall put the spotlight on the concerns of electricity storage with regards to large amount of renewable, distrbution power generation coming on-line and thus EHA will continue to follow closely new  developments.
The SET plan Conference that took place this November featured the Joint Undertaking for fuel cells and hydrogen, FCH JU, in several presentations as the first established European Industrial Initiative (EII’s)with a long term budget and strong cooperation at regional and national levels.   The recently launched European Industrial Initiatives of the SET Plan indicated that they are still working to secure long term budgets and multi-level collaboration. The FCH JU is  in a unique position to establish meaningful collaboration with all established EII’s as hydrogen production and applications link to all energy technologies of the SET Plan. The EHA therefore calls for increased attention ot leverage SET Plan budgets where possible and international cooperation efforts that puts Europe’s H2 and FC industries on a wide global map.