Coming as part of the Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan, Component 14 (C-14), the funding will be used to develop the HEVO-Industria green hydrogen project, which looks to integrate 300 of Fusion Fuel’s HEVO-Solar generators with a hydrogen refuelling station.

H2 View understands, the project which will require €25m ($25.4m) of capital investment and will produce approximately 764 tonnes of green hydrogen each year to be used for mobility and industrial applications in Sines or blended into the natural gas grid.

Fusion Fuel’s HEVO-Solar solution is a modular, integrated solar-to-hydrogen generator, powered by a proprietary miniaturised PEM electrolyser, enabling off-grid production of hydrogen.

The firm has said, as part of the HEVO-Industria project, the facility will be equipped with its HEVO-Night solution to allow the production of green hydrogen overnight and during period of little sun.

Commenting on the approval, Pedro Caçorino Dias, Head of Commercial for Portugal, said, “This is a tremendous accomplishment for Fusion Fuel, and further strengthens our partnership with and commitment to the country’s growing hydrogen ecosystem.

“Our €10m grant was the largest grant awarded in the application to a single project. It’s great to see the wheels beginning to turn on these funding programs, which are critical to accelerating the development of the hydrogen economy here in Portugal and making Portugal a leader in the energy transition on the global stage.”

João Wahnon, Head of Business Development at Fusion Fuel, added, “We are thrilled to have received this approval for funding support from C-14, which we view as further validating of our novel and disruptive solar-to-hydrogen technology.

“We will continue to be amongst the foremost pioneers of green hydrogen in Portugal and are excited to add the HEVO-Industria project to our existing portfolio of projects in active development in Portugal, with HEVO-Sul in Sines and our two Evora projects.”

Zach Steele, Co-Head at Fusion Fuel, believes the firm’s technology will encourage a reduction in the cost of hydrogen production, thanks to offering the ability to avoid last-mile logistics.

Steele, said, “Our ability to deploy decentralised, small-scale green hydrogen production commercially and co-locate it with refuelling stations is a meaningful competitive advantage at a time when scale is viewed as the only way to drive down cost.

“On-site production allows us to avoid last-mile logistics of hydrogen, which can add €1-2/kg to the delivered cost to the end user. We believe this is a winning strategy for us, particularly as governments in Europe and abroad begin to strengthen their commitment to hydrogen mobility.”