The European Commission is allocating nearly 720 million euros to seven projects for renewable hydrogen in Europe. Together, the involved stakeholders aim to produce 1.58 million tons of renewable hydrogen over ten years, thereby avoiding more than 10 million tons of CO2 emissions. Of the selected projects, five are located in Spain and Portugal, with two more in Finland and Norway. The condition: they must begin producing renewable hydrogen within a maximum of five years after signing the grant agreement. They will then receive a fixed premium for up to ten years. This subsidy is intended to offset the price difference between their production costs and the market price for hydrogen. In total, there were 132 bids.
No project from Germany was selected. Therefore, the German government is now allocating 350 million euros from national funding in a new auction process for the highest-ranked projects in Germany that did not qualify for EU-level funding but still meet the funding criteria. The auctions are financed by revenues from emissions trading. Wopke Hoekstra, EU Commissioner for Climate Action, sees this as a crucial step towards the production of renewable hydrogen in Europe. “I encourage other member states to follow Germany’s lead to promote the production of renewable hydrogen at the national level through our European auction platform,” said Hoekstra.
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