La UE concede millones en financiación para infraestructuras de recarga y H2

Through AFIF, the EU is promoting the transformation of road, sea, inland waterway and air transport in the TEN-T, and attempting to reach far beyond road transport, which so far has received the most attention. The 70 projects, stretching across 24 EU countries, are intended to “deploy alternative fuels supply infrastructure such as electric recharging stations, hydrogen refuelling stations, electricity supply and ammonia and methanol bunkering facilities,” according to the Commission’s statement.

Specifically concerning electric and fuel cell vehicles, support will be provided for more than 1,000 new charging points with a capacity of 150 kW for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles, 2,000 charging points with a capacity of 350 kW for heavy commercial vehicles, and 586 charging points with a capacity of 1 MW. In addition, the installation of 38 hydrogen filling stations for cars, trucks and buses will be funded. The electrification of ground handling services at 16 European airports is also among the projects receiving funding.

In other areas, around 24 seaports are to benefit “from the integration of greener technologies, including Onshore Power Supply (OPS), electrification of port services and ammonia bunkering facilities to fuel maritime vessels.” However, there is no mention of projects relating to electric aviation.

A total of five German projects were also considered, but other countries will also benefit in some cases. Munich’s public utility company, Stadtwerke München, will receive around €3.8 million for the electrification of bus transport, particularly concerning the expansion of corresponding charging infrastructure, according to a separate statement from the German EU representation. The oil company BP Europa (active in the charging business in Germany under the Aral Pulse brand) is receiving almost €7.4 million to expand the charging infrastructure for trucks in Germany. Fraport AG is one of the beneficiary airport operators and plans to use over €2.5 million to electrify ground handling services at Frankfurt Airport. One of the seaports mentioned is located in Hamburg: at the Port of Hamburg, two on-site power systems for up to four container ships are to be built with over 4.6 million euros in funding. Finally, the German charging station operator E-ON Drive Infrastructure (EDRI) will also receive 8.8 million euros in funding, but for the expansion of truck charging infrastructure in Poland and Hungary. We have linked the complete list of all 70 projects at the end of the article.

The detailed list shows that the BP project, which will receive €7.4 million in funding, envisages total investments of over €24.6 million. BP plans to build ten truck charging parks located no more than three kilometres from the TEN-T network. “At each location, the beneficiary plans to deploy 3 x 1MW charging stations, each connected to two recharging points. This setup allows the flexibility to deliver the full 1MW to a single truck or optimizing power distribution to 2 trucks simultaneously,” the statement reads.

The Fraport project stands to receive a total of 8.5 million euros (six million euros more than the subsidy amount), around nine power supply systems for parked aircraft, 322 AC charging points for light ground handling vehicles on the apron and a 10 MWh battery storage system to support the grid connection are to be installed. Several individual measures are planned at Munich’s city utilities company, Stadtwerke München: Six 400-kW charging points are planned at the East depot, seven 600-kW pantograph chargers along routes 192, 193 and 197, and the complete electrification of the Moosach depot with 26 150 kW chargers and four 400 kW chargers – in all cases including grid connection costs. The cost of the overall project is estimated at €12.72 million, which is around €8.9 million more than the amount of funding available.

The largest single grant of €61.5 million goes to the French company Voltix, which also has the highest total investment of over €205 million. Volitx plans to install a total of 288 MW of charging capacity for heavy commercial vehicles at 45 locations in several countries, including in France, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Austria and Germany.

“We are currently supporting 70 projects with €600 million in EU funding to accelerate the deployment of alternative fuels infrastructure across Europe,” says EU Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas. “These investments will strengthen our competitiveness and help make the transition to zero-emission mobility easier and more accessible for all citizens.”

Paloma Aba Garrote, Director of the European Commission’s Executive Agency for Climate, Infrastructure and Environment, added: “This significant EU support for public and private organisations will accelerate the transport sector’s transition toward a sustainable future. With these new projects, more than €2.5 billion in EU grants have been allocated to alternative fuels projects through AFIF since 2021. This demonstrates the EU’s ambition to make zero-emission mobility an everyday reality.”

ec.europe.eu, ec.europe.eu (List as PDF)