CEMTEC FONDEN

Their core work

CEMTEC FONDEN is a Danish foundation based in Hobro that participates in large-scale European hydrogen energy demonstration and deployment projects. Their work spans hydrogen production via electrolysis, grid balancing with renewable hydrogen, and multi-sector hydrogen ecosystem development. In HyBalance they contributed to proving out electrolysis-based hydrogen across multiple end markets, including grid services. In HEAVENN they are part of building a comprehensive hydrogen valley in the Netherlands, covering industry, transport, and heating applications. As an NGO-type foundation in a region with growing renewable energy capacity, they likely bring a regional deployment, dissemination, or stakeholder facilitation role to large consortia.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their early H2020 work (HyBalance, 2015-2020) was technology-focused: electrolysis, grid balancing, and proving that hydrogen could serve multiple end markets simultaneously. The shift visible in HEAVENN (from 2020) is from single-technology demonstration to whole-system thinking — the keywords move to innovation clusters, sector coupling, and cross-sector integration across industry, transport, and heating. This is a clear trajectory from "does the technology work?" to "how do we build a regional hydrogen economy around it?"

CEMTEC FONDEN is moving from technology demonstration toward regional hydrogen ecosystem development, making them a relevant partner for future hydrogen valley initiatives, multi-sector deployment projects, and certification-aligned market rollout programs.

How they like to work

CEMTEC FONDEN has never coordinated a project — they join as participants in large Innovation Action consortia. With 43 unique partners across 9 countries from just two projects, they embed themselves in very large collaborative structures. This suggests they bring a well-defined, contained contribution — whether technical, regional, or facilitation-based — without requiring project leadership, which makes them a low-friction partner to onboard.

Through two projects, CEMTEC FONDEN has worked with 43 unique partners across 9 countries — an unusually broad network for such a small portfolio, reflecting the scale of the hydrogen Innovation Actions they joined. Their network is European in reach, with a notable connection to the Northern Netherlands hydrogen corridor through HEAVENN.

What sets them apart

CEMTEC FONDEN is a small Danish foundation that has secured a foothold in two of the most significant European hydrogen deployment programs of the H2020 era — HyBalance and HEAVENN — at a time when most actors in this space were either large industrials or national labs. Based in Hobro, northern Denmark, a region with strong wind and renewable capacity, they represent a Nordic perspective within pan-European hydrogen consortia. Their participation in CertifHy-aligned work gives them exposure to the certification infrastructure that commercial hydrogen markets will depend on.

Highlights from their portfolio

• HyBalance
  The largest project by EC funding (EUR 354,750), HyBalance was a flagship European demonstration of power-to-hydrogen using electrolysis for grid balancing — one of the earliest projects to prove out multiple hydrogen end markets simultaneously.
• HEAVENN
  A long-running project (2020-2027) developing one of Europe's first integrated hydrogen valleys in Northern Netherlands, covering industry, transport, and heating — placing CEMTEC FONDEN inside the flagship regional hydrogen ecosystem model that EU policy is now scaling.