H2CE developed and tested a strategic decision-support approach to help public authorities integrate hydrogen into regional energy and development planning.
The project recognised that existing hydrogen guidance often focused on industry and individual project developers. H2CE instead used the planning authority, territorial knowledge and coordinating role of public administrations as important drivers of the transition.
Strategic decision support
The approach combined GIS data and energy modelling to help decision-makers examine:
- potential hydrogen production;
- existing and prospective demand;
- transport and distribution options;
- energy and hydrogen infrastructure;
- renewable-energy resources;
- territorial constraints; and
- relationships between different parts of the regional energy system.
This allowed public authorities to assess hydrogen opportunities across multiple territorial levels and compare possible development scenarios.
Testing in three regions
Partners co-designed and tested the approach through complementary work in:
- Styria, where the GIS pilot addressed regional data collection and data-sensitivity challenges;
- the Veneto Region, where more than 2,500 records supported mapping and hydrogen-demand analysis; and
- Lübben, where the energy-cell model examined hydrogen as part of an integrated, sector-coupled energy system.
Main lessons
Testing demonstrated that planning tools were only as reliable as their underlying data and assumptions. Public authorities therefore needed:
- clearly defined and comparable datasets;
- cooperation with data owners and infrastructure operators;
- transparent methods for estimating future hydrogen demand;
- procedures for handling sensitive information; and
- tools flexible enough to reflect different regional conditions.
Practical value
The completed approach gave public authorities a structured way to examine where hydrogen could add value and which infrastructure or coordination gaps needed to be addressed.
The results were documented in H2CE Deliverable 2.1.1 and integrated into the H2CE Collaboration Platform for access and adaptation by other regions.