HYPOP project: analysing public opinion and current regulations of hydrogen technologies throughout Europe

HYPOP project aims to analyse the current state of the art of hydrogen technologies implementation and public opinion in Europe and to develop tools in order to pave the way for current and further developments. For that reason, the permitting requirements for hydrogen projects across the European Union have been studied. The research carried out has revealed an uneven pace among the analysed countries in terms of the deployment of hydrogen projects and the establishment of hydrogen-related normative. Among the partner countries, it can be seen that Italy has a concrete reform introducing hydrogen in the legislative framework and Spain has a precise royal decree for hydrogen refuelling stations; meanwhile, no specific legislation for hydrogen has been identified for Belgium or Poland. Something similar occurs in other EU-13 countries (Latvia, Slovenia, Malta), but it should be noted that a lack of specific legislation does not necessarily means that no project is being developed in that country. At the other extreme, countries like France, Germany or Switzerland show a wider development of both hydrogen projects and hydrogen legislative framework. An example of this is the French “Law-Decree No 2021-167 of 17 February 2021 relating to hydrogen”.