Oversubscribed EU Hydrogen Grant Auction Attracts 6.3 GW of Bids

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Oversubscribed EU Hydrogen Grant Auction Attracts 6.3 GW of Bids

The second auction under the European Hydrogen Bank, a financing platform to scale up the renewable hydrogen value chain in the European Union and partner countries, has been oversubscribed by over four times with about 6.3 gigawatts (GW) of project proposals asking for over EUR 4.8 billion ($5.23 billion), the European Commission said. “Over ten […]

“Over ten years, these projects would produce more than 7.3 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen”, the Commission said in an online statement. “On a yearly basis, this would cover 7 percent of the EU’s REPowerEU ambition for domestic renewable hydrogen production in 2030”.

European Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra commented, “The amount of bids in this second auction under the European Hydrogen Bank again shows the attractiveness of the Innovation Fund as a tool for Europe’s industrial decarbonization and competitiveness”.

“As a key driver of our goal to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, hydrogen plays a crucial role in cutting emissions from hard-to-abate sectors”, Hoekstra added. “It will strengthen Europe’s industrial leadership in emerging clean technologies, ensuring long-term economic resilience and global competitiveness”.

Successful bidders will receive a fixed premium per kilogram of renewable hydrogen produced over a period of up to 10 years. “The premium, for which project promoters bid in the auction, covers the gap between the cost of production and the price buyers are currently willing to pay for renewable hydrogen”, the Commission said.

The European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) is evaluating the bids against the pass or fail qualification criteria. Passing bids will be ranked according to their bid price. CINEA plans to release evaluation results May 2025. Grant agreements are expected to be signed by November 2025.

Selected projects must reach financial close within 2.5 years and start production within five years of signing the grant agreement.

The second auction’s allotted budget, from the Innovation Fund, is EUR 1.2 billion. That excludes around EUR 700 million planned to be offered by Austria, Lithuania and Spain under the Hydrogen Bank’s “auction as a service” mechanism.

Auction as a service allows countries to pick projects that participated in the auction but did not win EU funding. This mechanism allows member-states to have a competitive selection of projects to fund using their internal budgets without holding their own auction.

The Commission has now approved, under EU state aid rules, Austria’s offer of EUR 400 million and Lithuania’s offer of EUR 36 million.

“The approved schemes will support the production of up to 112,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen in Austria, and 13,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen in Lithuania, resulting in the avoidance of the equivalent of up to 536,000 tonnes and 61,000 tonnes of CO2 respectively”, the Commission said in a separate statement.

Austria has made the offer using its national budget. Producers will be eligible for a maximum grant of EUR 200 million per project. To qualify, each project must have a maximum capacity of 300 megawatts.

Lithuania has availed of the auction as a service using its portion from the EU Modernization Fund. The hydrogen grant will help the Baltic state reach its goal of 1.3 GW of electrolysis capacity and 129 kilotons of renewable hydrogen production annually by 2030.

Spain has put forward EUR 280 million to EUR 400 million, using funds from its Recovery and Resilience Plan. Spain is expected to confirm the final amount of support by spring 2025.

Under the first Hydrogen Bank auction, seven projects across Finland, Norway, Portugal and Spain were awarded a total of EUR 720 million.

The seven projects were to receive subsidies of EUR 8 million to EUR 245 million, according to a statement by the Commission April 30, 2024.

Germany availed of the auction as a service under the first bidding round and received Commission approval for its offer of EUR 350 million.

To contact the author, email [email protected]

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Gemini Robotics brings AI into the physical world

Research

Published
12 March 2025

Authors
Carolina Parada

Introducing Gemini Robotics, our Gemini 2.0-based model designed for roboticsAt Google DeepMind,

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