The partnership revealed on Tuesday (March 29) will aim to deliver five million tonnes of green hydrogen to Europe by 2030 significant contributing to decarbonisation and net zero targets in the region.

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Formalised with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU), each company will focus on a different aspect of the agreement including the distribution of the hydrogen as well as its supply.

The partnership has also been signed as a means to displace reliance on Russian fossil fuel and gas imports with the five million tonnes of green hydrogen accounting to approximately one third of the calorific energy Germany imports from Russia.

As well as this, it will help to decarbonise thousands of medium-sized enterprises all over Germany and the Netherlands, as well as other European cities and communities to which E.ON distributes energy.

Dr. Andrew Forrest, Chairman and Founder of Fortescue Future Industries, said, “The announcement of this historic partnership today aims to diversify the future energy security in Europe.

“Green energy will reduce fossil fuel consumption dramatically in Germany and quickly help substitute Russian energy supply, while creating a massive new employment intensity industry in Australia.

This is a cohesive and urgently needed part of the green industrial revolution underway here in Europe.”

Robert Habeck, German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, said, “The race for large scale production and transportation of green hydrogen has taken off. The agreement between E.ON and FFI is a major step forward and puts them in a pole position for the delivery of green hydrogen to German industry.

“I congratulate the two companies and I strongly welcome their contribution to a future without fossil fuels. We will keep fostering initiatives like this one within the German-Australian Energy Partnership.”

Leo Birnbaum, CEO of E.ON, said, “E.ON is decisively driving forward the green energy transition in Europe and is fully committed to sustainability and climate protection. Renewable grene hydrogen is a key element to achieving this task, while at the same time contributing to a secure and affordable future energy supply.

“Our partnership with FFI is an important milestone on this path. Two major international companies are joining forces to build a “hydrogen bridge” from Australia to Germany and the Netherlands, based on shared values and the joint capability of realising the scale of such a project.

“Two together make decarbonisation possible for many, which is an encouraging message, especially in these days.”

North American Hydrogen Summit

H2 View is taking its events platform to America’s original clean hydrogen hub of California. Together with the California Fuel Cell Partnership (CaFCP), we will stage our North American Hydrogen Summit in San Francisco on July 14-15.

As our summit theme Building Bridges: Hydrogen hubs and investment suggests, the event will explore the $8bn of funding announced to create at least four regional hydrogen hubs in the US. These hubs will turbo-charge the nation’s progress toward heavy trucking and industrial sectors that run without producing carbon pollution – and they may just provide the path forward to a hydrogen-fuelled future.

With California and Texas vying to be America’s hydrogen capital today, where are the hubs of tomorrow? Further still, what can other states, and countries, learn from California’s success story? And how can we build bridges to a successful flow of international investment?

Our early bird offer tickets are $1,000, for a limited time only. If you are a member of the CaFCP, be sure to grab your ticket at a discounted rate with a code that can be provided to you by the events team.

Full information about this event including attendance and sponsorship packages can be found here.