$2 billion raised to target green hydrogen projects

​The world’s first and largest infrastructure fund developed by Hy24 has been closed. The joint venture between French private equity group Ardian and Zurich-based FiveT Hydrogen, successfully exceeded their initial ambition and raised €2 bn compared to €1.5 bn, ready to scale proven hydrogen value chain and to play a major role in decarbonising the global economy. 

Supported by global companies and financial institutions including TotalEnergies, Baker Hughes and Axo, the fund aims to target green hydrogen to invest in projects as it looks to harness the West’s transition to zero-carbon energy. 

Launched a year ago (2021), the fund is already the world’s largest pureplay clean hydrogen infrastructure product dedicated to the entire clean hydrogen value. 

Pierre-Etienne Franc, co-founder and CEO of Hy24, said: “With €2 billion of commitments, this fund will spur on the deployment of up to €20 billion in assets of strategic value to the industry in the next six years, performing for our investors and helping to decarbonise the global economy. This creates the right support for the new and critical hydrogen policy frameworks in our key geographies.” 

Over the next six years, Hy24 aims to mobilise up to €20 billion of investment capacity through financial support and sector know-how drawn from its major strategic investors and senior team. The way it works is by using renewable energy to power electrolysers that separate water into its atomic constituents of oxygen and hydrogen. Something which is continuously viewed in Europe as a viable replacement for some Russian gas. 

Elsewhere in the world, EU plan to use 20 m tonnes of hydrogen over the current decade, and the UK is also targeting 10GW of generation by the end of the decade, to meet energy needs such as powering heavy goods vehicles and supplementing wind and solar.