The French ”Zero Emission Valley” obtains a European financial support

With this leading project, the most important launched in Europe so far, the Auvergne Rhône Alpes aims at becoming the first hydrogen territory, both at a French and European level.

The Zero Emission Valley (read our previous release) has just obtained the financial support of the European Union. This € 70 million budget will help ensure: the ramp up of the hydrogen sector, the democratization of the use of hydrogen vehicles, and to win the fight against air pollution and climate change.

In the framework of the call for tender “Blending call 2017”, Europe has chosen to provide its financial support to the ZEV project.

The French Auvergne Rhône Alpes region aims at becoming the leading hydrogen territory, within France and Europe; and to turn the AURA into a model region with regard to sustainable development.

To this purpose, hydrogen, as a clean energy vector, plays a key role.

ZEV Project:

1 000 hydrogen vehicles,

20 hydrogen stations,

15 electrolyzers.

That is the reason why the Region applied for the European call of tender “Blending call 2017”, by submitting an ambitious project for the deployment of zero-emission mobility. The ZEV project aims at accelerating the ramp up of both the hydrogen-powered vehicles and the hydrogen stations’ infrastructure within the Region.
The size of the project, its innovative nature, the quality of the public-private sectors partnership and the economic profitability convinced the European Union, which has chosen the ZEV project over several others.

ZEV, a hydrogen project at an unprecedent scale

After the experimentation step, hydrogen enters into a deployment phase. Thanks to the European financial support, the AURA Region will support the launch of 1 000 hydrogen cars, 20 hydrogen stations and 15 electrolyzers, by providing a € 70 million fund over the coming 10 years.

This project relies on the wide expertise of the hydrogen energy already demonstrated in AURA. Let’s recall that the Region indeed gathers almost 80% of the hydrogen players.

Dowload the press release from the Région Auvergne Rhône Alpes (FR) [PDF]

Communiqué de presse | FR

Connect with us!

Keep up with our news by following us on

LinkedIn    and    Twitter