H2CRETE Valley Project

Challenge

The global climate crises, which strongly affect the contemporary world, highlight the urgent need for a substantial increase in clean energy investments.

Governments, organizations and industries worldwide are setting ambitious targets to face this challenge and accelerate the energy transition. For instance, the European Union aims to be climate-neutral by 2050, which means achieving an economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. 

Energy vectors like renewable hydrogen and sub-products like clean ammonia are promising sources of low-carbon energy and important key players in the transition to a net-zero economy. 

In this context, the European Commission's REPowerEU plan proposes that the European Union should produce 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen by 2030, while the European Union hydrogen strategy sets out an objective of 40 GW of installed renewable hydrogen electrolyser capacity by 2030.

To achieve these objectives, a rapid development of large-scale green hydrogen production plants is needed. Such installations rely on both mature and new technologies, but most of all on a delicate work of integration of the different technologies. Furthermore, given the normally low energy density of pure hydrogen, there is a need to test the optimal production and handling of hydrogen carriers, the most promising of which is ammonia.

On this basis, ProEuropean Trading GmbH, a Munich-based company, is developing the H2CRETE Valley Project (H2CRETE), aiming to turn Crete Island into the largest green hydrogen and green ammonia hub of the Mediterranean Sea. 

H2CRETE is a clean hydrogen and ammonia production project aspiring to become a pioneer and lead the way in deploying state-of-the-art innovative technology-integration solutions at a large scale in a strategic location for the European Union, Atherinolakos, in the south-east of Crete, Greece. The location is officially recognized as “energy centre” and is designed as the endpoint of several important energy interconnections projects. 

The project comprises a sea water desalination system, an electrolysis production unit of 100 MW, an ammonia production unit, storage facilities and ancillary equipment. The ammonia produced by H2CRETE will serve different off-takers such as import terminals, mobility, and maritime, and cement industry.

Finally, H2CRETE is officially recognised and certified by Mission Innovation and the Clean Hydrogen Partnership as a global Hydrogen Valley flagship. 

Our approach

RINA is providing technical, financial, and commercial advisory services to develop the H2CRETE Valley Project from concept design to feasibility study and beyond. 

We have provided ProEuropean Trading GmbH with a multidisciplinary team composed by process engineers, civil engineers, electrical engineers, management engineers, chemical engineers, health, safety & environment engineers, floater engineers, pipeline engineers, economists, marketers, and project management experts. 

In particular, we are supporting the development of H2CRETE Valley Project carrying out the following activities:

- Business Planning 
- Financial Modelling
- Concept Study definition
- Technical Feasibility Study
- Technical Advisory
- Financial Advisory
- Funding Scouting
- Application to Funding opportunities (e.g. Innovation Fund)
- Support for dissemination activities (e.g. European Hydrogen Week, World Economic Forum – Annual Meeting) 

Conclusions

H2CRETE Valley is an ambitious, innovative project, capable of supporting the European Union in achieving its ambitious decarbonization targets. Thanks to projects like H2CRETE Valley, Crete Island can truly become a clean energy hub: a gateway for renewable energy from North Africa and Middle East to Europe.