Air Liquide, TotalEnergies, VINCI, and other international companies have come together to sponsor the creation of the world’s largest fund exclusively dedicated to clean hydrogen infrastructure solutions.

The fund aims to raise funding of €1.5 billion (~$1.74 billion). It has already secured €800 million (~$928.7 million) through initial commitments. Air Liquide, TotalEnergies, and VINCI have committed to invest €100 million (~$116.12 million) each to the fund.

Hy24, a 50-50 joint venture between Ardian and FiveT Hydrogen, will manage the fund. The fund will enhance the growth of the clean hydrogen ecosystem by funding large strategic projects and leveraging industrial and financial players’ alliances.

The fund will invest in the entire value chain of renewable and low carbon hydrogen in the promising regions in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. It will partner with other key projects developers and industry players to invest in large upstream and downstream clean hydrogen projects.

The clean hydrogen infrastructure fund is expected to contribute to developing hydrogen projects with a cumulative value of around €15 billion (~$17.41 billion). The platform will be operational in late 2021, and the first closing is expected before the end of the year.

The fund will have the capacity to unlock large-scale projects under development and enhance the scaling up hydrogen market with solid industrial expertise and significant investment potential.

LOTTE Chemical and AXA will join as anchor investors for the fund. Large international industrial companies from North America and Europe like Groupe ADP, Ballard, EDF, and Schaeffler will join the initiative as non-anchor partners.

Benoît Potier, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air Liquide, said, “As Air Liquide, we have already committed to invest approximately €8 billion (~$9.29 billion) in the low-carbon hydrogen supply chain by 2035. Our objective is to contribute to the development of the entire value chain from low-carbon hydrogen production to end-uses, investing in the necessary infrastructure with storage and distribution projects. Accelerating on hydrogen development is key to mitigate climate change.”

Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TotalEnergies, said, “We are currently working on several projects, notably to decarbonize the grey hydrogen used in our European refineries by 2030. We are convinced that a collective effort is needed to kick-start the hydrogen sector and take it to scale. We are thus proud to launch and invest in the Clean hydrogen infrastructure fund, which will also give us privileged insights in the sector.”

According to Global Market Insights, the global hydrogen market revenue is expected to surpass $300 billion by 2027.

The global pipeline of utility-scale green hydrogen developments – projects with capacities greater than 1 MW – now exceeds 60 GW, with 87% of this capacity coming from gigawatt-scale projects, according to Rystad Energy Research.