France is targeting the production of 6 gigawatts of green hydrogen by 2030, increasing to 10 GW by 2035, French minister of energy transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher said Tuesday.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of Symbio’s fuel cell gigafactory, the minister said domestic green hydrogen production will prioritise the decarbonisation of the industry and heavy mobility.

Kallanish understands that these are some elements of the updated French hydrogen strategy, set to be revealed at the beginning of next year. It will involve €9 billion ($9.7 billion) of government support to upscale the hydrogen economy by 2030. The investment should guarantee competitive prices of green hydrogen compared to hydrogen produced from fossil sources, Pannier-Runacher told the local press at the event. She added that 500 kilometres of pipeline infrastructure will be built to facilitate fuel transportation.

“Announced by the President of the Republic in November 2022 as part of France 2030, this strategy aims to accelerate the deployment of hydrogen in France and structure a real industrial sector around this technology of the future, central to the decarbonisation of our economy”, the ministry has previously said.

The new strategy expectations come as the French government granted the first exploration licence for white hydrogen, and Symbio inaugurates its first fuel cell system factory – the largest production site in Europe. The joint venture between Forvia, Michelin and Stellantis foresees an initial production of 16,000 units/year, before increasing to 50,000 units/year by 2026.

Stellantis is using Symbio’s fuel cell solutions for light commercial vehicles and is expanding its range to include large vans with a mid-power architecture. The carmaker will develop a hydrogen fuel cell system for its Ram pick-up brand using Symbio’s technology. The SymphonHy gigafactory is part of the €1 billion HyMotive project supported by the European Union and the French government.

HyMotive plans to build a second gigafactory, doubling SymphonHy’s production capacity in France to 100,000 systems a year by 2028. Symbio aims to produce 200,000 units worldwide by 2030.