Mountain territories are facing major challenges: transforming tourism activity, maintaining their economic attractiveness, adapting to climate change, securing their resources, developing renewable energies in order to reach carbon neutrality objectives. The objective of AMETHyST is to support the deployment of local green hydrogen ecosystems in the Alps, where several green hydrogen applications are combined in a geographical area with high hydrogen potential. The project brings together 10 European partners including local authorities, local energy agencies and clusters from the Alpine region.
During the kick-off in Moûtiers, we asked a few members of the AMETHyST team about their opinion and hopes for the project.
—————————————————————————————————————————-
Green hydrogen pilot projects as a catalyst for the Alpine Region – Interview with Etienne Vienot (AURA-EE, France)
AURA-EE is the energy and environment agency of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. AURA-EE has strong expertise in sustainable energy at EU, national and regional levels and supports the Region in the management of the Zero Emissions Valley H2 project.
First we talked to Etienne Vienot (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Énergie Environnement AURA-EE), lead partner of AMETHyST. He outlines that there are already several pilot projects that are good examples of how green hydrogen ecosystems can be implemented in the Alpine region: “Our goal, with the project AMETHyST, is to experiment in pilot regions with hydrogen ecosystems in mountain areas, because we need concrete examples…”
Watch the interview with Etienne Vienot – https://youtu.be/gvryCz4g6cA
—————————————————————————————————————————-
Green hydrogen will take place in Slowenia in the near future – Interview with Vlasta Krmelj (ENERGAP, Slovenia)
ENERGAP has 15 years of experience working in energy and climate protection projects and has implemented many pilot projects. It has cooperated in more than 20 EU projects. Slovenia has only little experience in H2, very few companies test the solutions. Therefore, ENERGAP would like to learn from advanced partners to increase its knowledge and competencies in the field of H2 and share them with regional stakeholders. In the project AMETHyST ENERGAP is working on the communication of the project.
We asked Vlasta Krmelj from ENERGAP: „Where are we going to see hydrogen applications in the near future?“ In the interview she was very confident that in the near future hydrogen will be used even in residental houses because there are already many subsidies in Slovenia.
Watch the interview with Vlasta Krmelj – https://youtu.be/YisalZdwdrg
—————————————————————————————————————————-
Green hydrogen as solution for the mobility sector – Interview with Laurent Horvath (BlueArk, Switzerland)
BlueArk Entremont was created by the communes of Val de Bagnes, Sembrancher and Bovernier, in collaboration with The Ark, the Foundation for Innovation in Valais. BlueArk Entremont aims to bring together SMEs, start-ups, research institutes and public authorities. It also aims to raise awareness among local and regional players of the issues related to water, renewable energies and climate change. Blueark is involved in the AMETHyST project as a pilot coordinator.
Laurant Horvath from BlueArk is optimistic that in the future green hydrogen could be an option to replace diesel.
Watch the interview with Laurent Horvath – https://youtu.be/m02FPaheXeI
—————————————————————————————————————————-
Potential use-cases of hydrogen in Italy – Interview with Matteo Mazzolini (APE-FVG, Italy)
APE FVG (Agenzia per l’energia del FVG) operates as a catalyst over its territory, connecting EU projects, local stakeholders, and resources with a goal oriented approach. As a technical partner APE collects data and performs operational and feasibility analyses over several energy related fields. APE will coordinate a pilot project in the project AMETHyST.
Matteo Mazzolini from APE FVG outlined the potentials of hydrogen use in Italy: „We want to test at low scale the possibility of producing hydrogen from renewables. In Italy solar energy and hydroelectric power from rivers are important energy producers and hydrogen could be a good solution to shift a part of this production to the market in a very efficient way.”
Watch the interview with Matteo Mazzolini – https://youtu.be/ItHrRzhjxxw
—————————————————————————————————————————-
Many thanks to all interview partners for these interesting insights into the work and hopes for the project AMETHyST.
Follow us on social media for current updates:
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@amethyst1145
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/amethyst-project/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/2022_AMETHyST
