Commission in search of blueprint for hydrogen JTI 

Some 50 European companies with an interest in hydrogen and fuel cells took a step forward on the way towards a European Joint Technology Initiative on 28 March 2007. Member companies, including Shell and DaimlerChrysler, established a JTI Industry Grouping, an international not-for-profit association that will be the Commission's key interlocutor and partner in the creation of the hydrogen and fuel cell JTI. 

At the same time, the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Platform's implementation plan for a strategic research agenda was published. This is the equivalent of a proposal for the operations of the future JTI.  

"This is an industry sign for the Commission. We're committed, organised and ready," said Herbert Kohler (DaimlerChrysler), president of the technology platform and newly elected vice-chair of the six-person board of the industry group, which will be chaired by Shell Hydrogen Europe General Manager Gijs Van Breda. 

The grouping will have an operational budget of €500,000 for the year 2007. This amount is the sum of group members' yearly 'membership fee' - €15,000 for big companies, €7,500 for the SMEs. "€500,000 is needed for 2007 to be spent on day-to-day activities, for organising the industry grouping and preparing for work so that we are ready when the JTI proposal comes out from the Commission," explained Kohler. "This industry grouping is not a closed club," he added inviting more members to join.

Having fulfilled the in-depth preparations for the JTI on their side, the founding companies of the JTI Industry Grouping are now calling upon the Commission to accelerate the process and adopt a proposal for the creation of the JTI on fuel cells and hydrogen "as soon as possible".

Establishment of an industry grouping is, however, not a prerequisite for all JTIs. "We [the Commission] were waiting the hydrogen industry grouping to get established as hydrogen is very different from other prospected JTI. Hydrogen has very different actors, whereas, for exemple the innovative medicines initiative (IMI) is about the major pharmaceutical companies and aeronautic and air transport (ACARE) is about the the major aeronautic companies. So, as to hydrogen it was important for us to know who are in," explained Raffaele Liberali, director at DG Research.

As to the overall framework for these large-sacale PPPs, "the Commission is still discussing the legal structure for the JTIs. We will decide in the next two months how to manage the structure. We need a cost-effective management sturcture in different frames," Liberali added.  "The proposals for individual JTI are due soon, as we are currently finalising the impact assessments." 

According to different sources, the main issues still under discussion are the voting rights. Once a JTI is established, the governing board of the JTI will have equal vote between the industry and the Commission - 6 for each, 12 in total, the Commission having a veto to be able to bloc an eventual 'non-public-interest' use of money. Research group would like to have one vote from each to be able to form a 'blocking minority' but at least industry has refused. The Commission might give one or two of its votes to the research group.

"The current design for each JTI is very different. The Commission needs to find a 'master structure' for JTIs because it would be impossible to get 20 different legal settings through European Parliament and Council and the Commission can not handle different structure for each JTI," explained Herbert Wancura, vice-chair of the Hydrogen JTI industry grouping.

The technology platforms will continue functioning once the respective JTIs are established and will serve as the steering board above all activities carried out by the industry group (technology transfer and operational work) and research group (basic research). The hydrogen research group is currently being established.

According to the impementation plan developed by the Hydrogen and fuel cell technology platform, some €7.4 billion is needed between 2007 and 2015 to efficiently deploy hydrogen and fuel cell technologies and carry out the required research activities, 50% from the Commission and the member states and 50% from industry.

"The Commission part of the money for JTIs will come from the Seventh Framewor Programme (FP7), but there's no specific amount allocated to them. There is an amount allocated to, for example, energy and then inside this thematic priority, it is foreseen to, eventually establish a JTI," explained Raffaele Liberali.

Stakeholders of the six different technology platforms identified as potential JTIs would like changes to be introduced into FP7 so that a specific lump sum would be earmarked for each JTI. 

Herbert Kohler (vice-chairman of the hydrogen JTI industry grouping), DaimlerChrysler, Germany: "This grouping was needed to show that industry has thought through the issues and is ready to act in a coherent way, within a single structure. Research institutes are in the process of establishing the same type of group as the one founded today for industry."

Herbert Wancura (vice-chairman of the hydrogen JTI industry grouping), ALPPS Fuel Cell Systems GmbH, Austria: "The Commission has defined JTIs' industry-led processes. Research centres by definition are not industry. Research centres tried to act as a 'decision-making minority' between the equally strong industry and Commission and wanted one vote from each. Industry, of course, refused, because despite the very important contribution of research centres, industry research is of a much larger magnitude. The money spent by research centres together is perhaps €100,00-€200,000, whereas just two companies together spent more than €2 billion. So, they can't start controlling the content of the process. This was a big conflict. 

"The Commission needs a 'master structure' to which adaptions at the fringes are possible and that will require some flexibilities from the JTI proposals and the Commission, but that will be in the fringes, not in the core structure. The Commission cannot handle different structures for each JTI," added Wancura.

Concerning the lessons eventually learned from the Galileo project with regards European-wide public-private partnerships, Wancura said: "Galileo has been a very positive experience in this sense, as it is about a medium- to long-term shoot that can not be achieved in any other way, a bit like JTIs. However, it is important that mistakes become transparent enough so that you can create institutional learning. The problem with PPP is that both parties, private and public, tend to have an interest in not letting their errors be known, so you can't learn from them."

Miakael Sloth, business development manager at the Danish H2 Logic: "Everybody knows that we need to find a replacement for the internal combustion engine and the big automotive companies taking part in this JTI also know that. In the European context it is important for them that the EU has a set-up where they can math what they're doing in the US and in Japan, especially concerning the car industry. This is why you see European carmakers being so active in this field, because this is their home market. If they are to match the develoment efforts for replacing the combustion engine in the US and in Japan, they need to have a strong structure for that."