Towards the Italian fuel cells and hydrogen platform

In Italy the presence of an active scientific community on hydrogen and fuel cells is becoming more and more evident: an industrial sector committed to turn the innovative technological opportunities of these technologies into effective business opportunities and several public institutions supporting the integration of scientific community and industry actions. However, these initiatives often remain dispersed and efforts not sufficiently integrated. Activities are restricted to the technical experts, failing to arrive at the level of the decision makers who are in the position to establish a national framework and identify guidelines and priorities in accordance with other European countries. Indeed, despite repeated attempts to stimulate cohesive government intervention, a national platform on FC&H2 has not yet been launched as in other countries of the world. The Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic development (ENEA) and the University of Perugia (Unipg) are promoting the establishment of the Italian Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Platform in order to coordinate efforts for the development of critical technologies for the whole hydrogen cycle (production, delivery, storage, conversion and end use applications) and the overcoming of barriers, in other words, to act as a country system. The present abstract describes the activities performed so far and highlights the results achieved up to date towards the official launch of the Platform.