By the time of the next presidential election in 2022, France hopes to have regained the economic growth it last experienced in 2019. In order to stimulate the economy following the COVID-19 lockdown, the French government is rolling out a EUR 100 billion recovery program named France Relance. EUR 2 billion of the funds will be released over the next couple of years to support hydrogen projects. In total, the French government plans to channel EUR 7 billion of investment into this energy carrier in the runup to 2030. Meanwhile over the border, Germany has earmarked funds of EUR 9 billion to bolster its hydrogen sector. These financial stimulus packages and, moreover, the ambitions of these two countries to adopt a leadership stance in the future hydrogen economy, are also resulting in increasing efforts of French and German companies to work together.
French
Areva becomes Framatome
The nuclear products division of the French Areva group has restructured its German subsidiary. On Nov. 1, 2017, it transferred all operations of Areva Germany, based in Erlangen, to New NP. After French energy supplier Électricité de France became the parent company’s major shareholder at the beginning of 2018, the name was changed to Framatome.
Pragma builds crowdfunded electric bike
It took Pragma Industries, a French manufacturer of fuel cell bikes, fewer than 3 weeks to reach the EUR 300,000 goal of its early November crowdfunding campaign. The amount, which has meanwhile grown to over half a million euros, is planned to help with the construction of the first lpha bikes in Biarritz. The lpha 2.0, the company’s second generation of hydrogen-powered pedal cycles, comes with a 250-watt electric motor
Stockage de l’électricité d’origine renouvelable
In June 2016, Dunod Verlag published a book in French about power-to-gas. The 192-page paperback edition “Le Power-to-Gas – Stockage de l’électricité d’origine renouvelable” (ISBN 13: 978-2-10-074137-3; price: EUR 32) … Read more
Pedal Cycles Run on Fuel Cells Too
The idea has already been tossed around for twenty years – now it is finally being realized: The development of a market-ready fuel cell bike. As gas specialist Linde announced in November 2015, it took in-house engineers less than three months to design an electric-assisted pedal cycle equipped with a fuel cell instead of a battery pack. The required hydrogen is brought along in a composite tank, which can hold 34 grams of the gas