Hydrogen station – Image Bexim
(BRUSSELS) – The EU Commission awarded nearly EUR 720m to seven renewable hydrogen projects in Europe Wednesday, selected through a first competitive bidding process under the European Hydrogen Bank.
The funds for this auction come from the revenues of the EU Emissions Trading System. The winning bidders will produce renewable hydrogen in Europe and will receive a subsidy to bridge the price difference between their production costs and the market price for hydrogen, which is currently driven by non-renewable producers. The renewable hydrogen they produce will be used in sectors such as steel, chemicals, maritime transport and fertilisers.
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The 7 selected projects are winners of an oversubscribed auction which attracted 132 bids in total. Together, the winning bidders plan to produce 1.58 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen over ten years, avoiding more than 10 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. The selected projects are located in 4 European countries. They submitted bids between 0.37 and 0.48 per kilogram of renewable hydrogen produced, and also met the other qualification requirements. The subsidy the 7 projects will receive ranges from 8 million to 245 million.
In addition, through a new ‘Auctions-as-a-service’ mechanism, 350 million in national funding has been made available by Germany for the highest ranked projects in Germany which did not qualify for EU-level support, but which do meet the eligibility criteria. The German authorities will select and communicate the winning projects. The Auctions-as-a-service scheme is open to all Member States, enabling them to benefit from the EU-level auction platform and award national funding to additional projects. The Commission invites other Member States to take advantage of this service for future auctions.
