The European Commission announced February 15 that it had approved up to €6.9 billion ($7.43 billion) in state aid to help seven member nations with the development of their hydrogen supply chain.

The funding will be supplied via the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) program to the IPCEI Hy2Infra project, which is jointly prepared by Poland, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Italy and Slovakia.

According to Offshore Technology, the money will support 32 companies working on 33 projects along the EU’s hydrogen value chain and likely unlock over $5.81 billion in private investments.

The funding will support the deployment of over 1,677 miles of hydrogen transmission and distribution pipelines as well as 3.2 gigawatts of large-scale electrolyzers used to produce renewable hydrogen. The EU Commission said that the electrolyzers will come online by 2026.

The initiative will help with the development of large-scale hydrogen storage facilities that boast a capacity of at least 370 gigawatt-hours, the Commission added. The project will also fund the construction of terminals and other port infrastructure that will be able to manage 6,000 tons of hydrogen annually.

“While the renewable hydrogen supply chain in Europe is still in a nascent phase, Hy2Infra will deploy the initial building blocks of an integrated and open renewable hydrogen network,” said Margrethe Vestager, the executive vice president of the European Commission.