Despite considerable support for the hydrogen mobility sector, there remains low take-up of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) and vehicle sales remain low. This is a significant issue for the commercialisation of the sector, as whilst sales volumes are low, vehicle production costs and prices remain high. The lack of demand for hydrogen also damages the business case for investment in early hydrogen refuelling stations (HRS). The ZEFER project proposes a solution to this issue. ZEFER will demonstrate viable business cases for captive fleets of FCEVs in operations which can realise value from hydrogen vehicles, for example by intensive use of vehicles and HRS, or by avoiding pollution charges in city centres with applications where the refuelling characteristics of FCEVs suit the duty cycles of the vehicles. ZEFER aims to drive sales of FCEVs in these applications to other cities, thereby increasing sales volumes of FCEVs and improving the business case for HRS serving these captive fleets. ZEFER will deploy 180 FCEVs in Paris, Copenhagen and London. 170 FCEVs will be operated as taxi or private hire vehicles, and the remaining 10 will be used by the police. The vehicle customers are all partners in the project, so that deployments will occur quickly, (the majority of vehicles will be deployed by the end of 2018) and FCEV mileage will be accumulated rapidly (in Paris mileages will be over 90,000 km/year; in Copenhagen mileages will be over 75,000 km/year and in London mileages will be over 40,000 km/year). These applications mean that vehicle performance will be tested to the limit, allowing a demonstration of the technical readiness of new generation FCEVs for high usage applications. The vehicles will be supported by existing and planned HRS. ZEFER will complement these ambitious deployments with robust data collection, analysis of the business cases and technical performance of the deployments. A targeted dissemination campaign will aim to replicate the business cases across Europe.

PIONEERS brings together four ports with different characteristics, but shared commitments towards meeting the Green Deal goals and Blue Growth socio-economic aims, in order to address the challenge for European ports of reducing GHG emissions while remaining competitive. In order to achieve these ambitions, the Ports of Antwerp-Bruges, Barcelona, Venlo and Constanta will implement green port innovation demonstrations across four main pillars: clean energy production and supply, sustainable port design, modal shift and flows optimization, and digital transformation. Actions include: renewable energy generation and deployment of electric, hydrogen and methanol vehicles; building and heating networks retrofit for energy efficiency and implementation of circular economy approaches in infrastructure works; together with deployment of digital platforms (utilising AI and 5G technologies) to promote modal shift of passengers and freight, ensure optimised vehicle, vessel and container movements and allocations, and facilitate vehicle automation. These demonstrations form integrated packages aligned with other linked activities of the ports and their neighbouring city communities. Forming an Open Innovation Network for exchange, the ports, technology and support partners will progress through project phases of innovation demonstration, scale-up and co-transferability. Rigorous innovation and transfer processes will address technology evaluation and business case development for exploitation, as well as creating the institutional, regulatory and financial frameworks for green ports to flourish from technical innovation pilots to widespread solutions. These processes will inform and be undertaken in parallel with masterplan development and refinement, providing a Master Plan and roadmap for energy transition at the PIONEERS ports, and handbook to guide green port planning and implementation for different typologies of ports across Europe.