The development of hydrogen is “a battle for the industry, for ecology and for sovereignty,” said the head of state, Tuesday.
Le Monde with AFP
Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday, November 16 to Béziers (Hérault), that 1.9 billion euros will be devoted to the development of the hydrogen sector as part of the France 2030 investment plan of 30 billion. The development of hydrogen is “a battle for the industry, for ecology and for sovereignty,” said the head of state by visiting the Genvia company, which develops high temperature electrolysers to produce Hydrogen from the water molecule.
Hydrogen will allow “to reconcile the industrial adventure, growth, with the decarbonation of our economies. The” at the same time “is possible thanks to these innovations,” he explained by addressing Site employees. “It’s a brand new continent that opens before us”, according to him.
France has an advantage over other major countries because it has a “solid nuclear, installed” which allows it to “produce hydrogen much more massively”. “If we know how to be leaders in the production of hydrogen, then we will build the” energetic sovereignty, insisted the head of state.
“There is never fatality”
“There is never inevit. We never respond to the difficulties of time by having the nostalgia of a past that is no longer. But by redoubling ability to resist and not give way, to think The future in its new dynamics. That’s exactly what France has to do today, “said Emmanuel Macron.
The head of state, who has not yet announced whether he was a candidate or not during the April 2022 presidential election, seeks to present himself as the leader of the progressive camp facing candidates who argue that France is a declining country.
Emmanuel Macron was welcomed by the far-right mayor of Beziers, Robert Ménard, who thanked him for the support provided to Genvia, who must enlarge his site. France put, through the recent France 2030 investment plan, on “future technologies”, whose hydrogen is part of, to develop its industry while decarbonating. The electricity used to manufacture hydrogen comes from either nuclear or renewable energies. The GENVIA project is one of the seventy-seven projects deposited by manufacturers with Bercy in the field of hydrogen, of which fifteen should be notified in Brussels to receive aid.