Cost-efficient and reliable designs towards gigawatt-scale electrolytic hydrogen production plants
Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
The Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking or Clean Hydrogen Partnership is a unique public-private partnership supporting research and innovation (R&I) activities in hydrogen technologies in Europe. It builds upon the success of its predecessor, the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
This topic aims to drive innovation in integrated hydrogen production plants by reimagining plant design, architecture, and deployment models.
The focus should be on developing novel concepts for highly efficient, cost-competitive, and reliable electrolytic hydrogen production plants at very large scales (≥400 MW), leveraging commercially available electrolyser stacks, advanced system engineering, and innovative BoP and plant components (e.g., purification, compression, thermal integration, power electronics).
As relevant, the design specifications and components innovation roadmaps (e.g to optimise performances and durability when operating dynamically or improve end of life recycling), is also encouraged.
Detailed Call Description
Proposals should deliver a complete fully replicable plant concept: a hydrogen production facility capable of delivering renewable hydrogen ex-works (without transport) at highest consumption quality, using available resources (e.g. water and electricity) and complying with EU regulations (notably RFNBO criteria).
The project should cover the following elements:
- Consider a full system integration of a large-scale (≥400 MW) electrolysis capacity and all necessary BoP subsystems (water treatment, cooling, purification, power electronics, compression, storage, etc) and demonstrate scalability to 1000 MW and beyond with strong replicability potential. When relevant, the project may rely on innovative/breakthrough components developed in previous EU-funded projects on full scope plants and BoPs (e.g. on-going in 2025 DJEWELS, ENDURE, EPHYRA, HERAQCLES, HOPE, HERMES, REMEDHYS);
- Technical and economic optimisation across all parameters affecting hydrogen cost: availability, energy efficiency, DEVEX, CAPEX, OPEX, footprint, water consumption, etc;
- The plant design should valorise as far as possible the by-products from the electrolysis plant (e.g. waste heat, oxygen, water, grid services);
- Scenarios exploring infrastructures and layouts, process simplification, and innovative solutions for cost and footprint optimisation (e.g. pooling, massification, standardisation, …) based on mature solutions. Concrete recommendations are expected to be delivered by the analysis of the scenarios;
- A Reliability, Availability, Maintainability (RAM) analysis or equivalent to quantify system availability, ensuring the plant’s operational reliability. This includes innovations around operations & maintenance solutions particularly to cope with specific challenges of GW-scale plants constraints;
- Investment-grade engineering documentation, including CAPEX Class 3 estimates (AACEI 18R-97) and Front-End Engineering Design (FEED)-level studies, ensuring technical and financial readiness for industrial deployment;
- An energy efficiency and water consumption estimation based on exhaustive analysis (full plant power balance), feedback data from the field and/or supplier guarantees for the major electricity and water consumers of the plant;
- An OPEX estimate based on an explicit methodology, and with verifiable data;
- Modelling, simulation and optimisation tools (development and/or use) to quantify availabilities via RAM studies, achieve techno-economic sensitivity analyses, OPEX and efficiency of the elaborated designs. (FEED-Ready outputs).
Proposals should include RAM analysis, CAPEX Class 3 estimates with FEED-level documentation, and clear OPEX, energy, and water consumption assessments. Designs development will be supported by advanced modelling and optimisation tools to enable robust techno-economic analyses and guide system optimisation. Innovation will focus on system-level integration using existing, proven electrolyser stacks. Proposals should also validate the proposed approach through a representative project case study, demonstrating practical feasibility and scalability. The designed system will target a minimum capacity of 400 MW, with a clear pathway to scale up to 1 GW and beyond.
The following elements are out of scope:
- Activities related to hydrogen pipeline connection or end-use tie-ins;
- Development of new electrolysis cell technologies or fundamental components.
Consortia should include various stakeholders of the hydrogen value chain including, but not limited to, components manufacturers, system manufacturers (at least 2), system integrators, project developers, plant operators, end users, etc. Consortia will gather all technical & economic expertise needed not only for the implementation of the project but also will associate related sectorial clusters and associations helping to ensure the replicability of the project outcomes. To support the replicability of the projects outcomes, project outputs e.g. deliverables, models, etc. are expected to be mainly publicly available.
Projects should build on previous, and find synergies with projects supported under this year Call such as but not only HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-01-04 ‘Innovative business models advancing renewable electrolysis integration in industry‘ and projects supported by the Process4Planet Partnership and Clean Steel Partnership as well as those projects, activities and initiatives supported by and placed under the Innovation Fund.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
100%
Expected EU contribution per project: €2.50 million.
Thematic Categories
- Energy
- Environment and Climate Change
- Industry
- Research, Technological Development and Innovation
- Water - Management of Water Resources
Eligibility for Participation
- Businesses
- Large Enterprises
- Legal Entities
- NGOs
- Non Profit Organisations
- Other Beneficiaries
- Private Bodies
- Researchers/Research Centers/Institutions
- Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs)
Eligibility For Participation Notes
Additional eligibility condition: Maximum contribution per topic
For some topics, in line with the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA, an additional eligibility criterion has been introduced to limit the Clean Hydrogen JU requested contribution mostly for actions performed at high TRL level, including demonstration in real operational environment and with important involvement from industrial stakeholders and/or end users such as public authorities. Such actions are expected to leverage co-funding as commitment from stakeholders. It is of added value that such leverage is shown through the private investment in these specific topics. Therefore, proposals requesting contributions above the amounts specified per each topic below will not be evaluated
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-03-03: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 5.00 million
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-04-02: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 8.00 million
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-06-01: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 17.00 million
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-06-02: The maximum Clean Hydrogen JU contribution that may be requested is EUR 8.00 million
Additional eligibility condition: Membership to Hydrogen Europe / Hydrogen Europe Research
For the topics listed below, in line with the Clean Hydrogen JU SRIA, an additional an additional eligibility criterion has been introduced to ensure that one partner in the consortium is a member of either Hydrogen Europe or Hydrogen Europe Research. This concerns topics targeting actions for large-scale demonstrations, flagship projects and strategic research actions, where the industrial and research partners of the Clean Hydrogen JU are considered to play a key role in accelerating the commercialisation of hydrogen technologies by being closely linked to the Clean Hydrogen JU constituency, which could further ensure full alignment with the SRIA of the JU. This approach shall also ensure the continuity of the work performed within projects funded through the H2020 and FP7, by building up on their experience and consolidating the EU value-chain. In the Call 2026 this applies to: development and demonstration of flexible and standardised hydrogen storage systems and demonstration and operation of reversible solid oxide cell systems operation for local grid-connected hydrogen production and utilisation. This will also apply to the Hydrogen Valleys (flagship) topics as they are considered of strategic importance for the European Union ambitions to double the number of Hydrogen Valleys by 2025 as well as to the more recent European Commission’s inspirational target to have at least 50 Hydrogen Valleys under construction or operational by 2030 across the entire EU. For the Hydrogen Valleys topics a large amount of co-investment/co-funding of project participants/beneficiaries including national and regional programmes is expected.
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-03-03
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-04-02
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-06-01
- HORIZON-JU-CLEANH2-2026-06-02