The Veneto Region published an overview of the Empowering H2-ready Regions in central Europe (H2CE) project and its contribution to regional hydrogen planning.
H2CE was implemented from 2023 to 2026 within the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE Programme and was co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. It brought together partners from nine regions in seven countries under the coordination of the Joint Spatial Planning Department Berlin-Brandenburg.
The project’s regional approach
H2CE helped public authorities integrate hydrogen into local and regional energy and spatial-planning frameworks.
Its work covered three connected areas:
- integrating hydrogen into regional strategies and action plans;
- supporting regional energy-system transitions through practical tools and mechanisms; and
- developing a transnational network and digital platform for knowledge exchange.
Results highlighted by Veneto
The regional article presented several H2CE activities and outputs:
- GIS-based planning pilots in Veneto and Styria;
- strategic support for hydrogen infrastructure planning;
- Regional H2 Competence Centre approaches in participating regions; and
- cooperation between hydrogen-ready regions across national borders.
The Veneto pilot contributed more than 2,500 records to the GIS work and helped test how regional statistics, energy consumption, infrastructure and potential hydrogen demand could be combined in spatial analysis.
Practical value
The publication helped communicate H2CE results to a wider regional audience. It showed how transnational project methods were translated into region-specific planning activities and how Veneto’s experience contributed to tools that could be adapted elsewhere in central Europe.
The original article was published in Italian on the Veneto Region’s website.