RAG Austria’s 100-MW Hydrogen Project Gains EU PCI Status

• RAG Austria’s 100-MW hydrogen project receives EU PCI status, unlocking fast-track permitting and funding for a major cross-border green hydrogen corridor.

RAG Austria has secured a major strategic win after its planned 100-MW green hydrogen initiative was granted official Project of Common Interest (PCI) status by the European Union. This designation places the project among Europe’s highest-priority energy infrastructure investments, offering accelerated permitting, improved financing access, and EU-level visibility.

The first phase of the initiative covers a 100-MW electrolyser, a cross-border hydrogen transmission pipeline, and a large-scale underground storage site. Together, they form one of Central Europe’s earliest integrated hydrogen corridors—an infrastructure backbone designed to convert excess renewable electricity into hydrogen, transport it across borders, and store it for industrial, mobility, and power-system uses.

The PCI label is especially meaningful in the context of Europe’s energy transition. The EU is pushing to reduce reliance on fossil-fuel imports, strengthen energy security, and create a unified hydrogen market with shared standards and cross-border flows. Projects that advance these goals receive priority treatment, and RAG Austria’s early-stage platform fits squarely into this vision.

RAG Austria is already one of Europe’s leading operators of underground gas storage, giving it both geological resources and decades of technical expertise. This makes the shift to hydrogen a natural evolution. The company plans to use salt caverns and depleted gas reservoirs as storage hubs, which would allow hydrogen to be produced when renewable output is high and injected into the system for later use.

PCI status also unlocks pathways for cooperation between Austria, Germany, and neighboring countries that plan to expand their hydrogen infrastructure over the coming years. The project’s strategic importance lies not only in its capacity but in its model: a truly interconnected, multi-country hydrogen ecosystem.

RAG Austria expects the designation to accelerate feasibility work, permitting, and partner engagement as Europe ramps up its green hydrogen ambitions.