Spain will contribute €415 million to the European Hydrogen Bank’s “Auctions-as-a-Service” (AaaS) scheme to finance new domestic green hydrogen projects, and an additional €50 million for the EU’s first industrial heat decarbonization auction launching this Wednesday.
Spain’s Vice President and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), Sara Aagesen, announced today a new national contribution to the European Commission’s Auctions-as-a-Service (AaaS) mechanism under the Innovation Fund, managed by the European Hydrogen Bank. The country will allocate 415 million euros to finance new domestic projects for the production and use of renewable hydrogen.
Spain will also participate in the AaaS structure of the EU’s first industrial heat auction, providing an additional 50 million euros to support decarbonization initiatives targeting industrial thermal processes.
“Let me take this opportunity to announce a 415 million euros contribution to strengthen the European Hydrogen Bank’s third auction. With this new allocation, we have reached a total of 3.155 billion euros to make hydrogen a reality. Ten years ago, hydrogen was seen as something confined to laboratories or R&D. Today, however, we are seeing real projects reaching all parts of the country and contributing to the decarbonization our economy needs,” the minister stated during the closing of the Q-Cero Alliance meeting.
Spain’s participation in the renewable hydrogen AaaS scheme is expected to help the country reach its goal of allocating 100% of the funds assigned to the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving (IDAE) under the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). This is Spain’s second contribution, following the 376.9 million euros allocated in 2024.
For the industrial heat auction—the first of its kind launched by the European Commission—Spain aims to support projects involving industrial heat electrification (heat pumps, resistive or plasma heating), direct renewable heat (solar thermal or geothermal solutions), and hybrid systems combining renewable heat with electrification. These technologies are already being promoted under the national PERTE ERHA and PERTE for Industrial Decarbonization programs.
FUNDING ALLOCATION
Spain’s new contribution to the Hydrogen Bank’s AaaS mechanism will be distributed across two of the three “baskets” or topics included in the Terms and Conditions of the Bank’s third auction:
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278.6 million euros for Topic #1: Production of renewable hydrogen from non-biological sources (RFNBO, Renewable Fuels of Non-Biological Origin).
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136.4 million euros for Topic #3: Production of RFNBO hydrogen dedicated to supplying the maritime and aviation sectors.
For each submitted project, the maximum grant will be limited by the national budget available under each topic. If funds allocated to one topic are not fully awarded, national rules allow for redistribution between the two.
For the industrial heat auction, Spain will allocate:
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30 million euros to the low-temperature (100–400°C), low-capacity (3–5 MWth) topic.
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20 million euros to the low-temperature (100–400°C), medium-capacity (>5 MWth) topic.
TIGHTER DEADLINES
From the date specified in the call, any project placed on Spain’s national waiting list and considered a potential beneficiary under the AaaS scheme must submit all required documentation and performance guarantees.
National deadlines for submitting these guarantees—and, more broadly, for the administrative process—will be shorter than those of the first AaaS call. Final award decisions must be published before 31 August 2026, as these grants are funded through the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) under the PRTR.
Financed through the Innovation Fund and national contributions, the European Hydrogen Bank is one of the instruments designed by the European Commission to strengthen Europe’s leadership in the global green hydrogen race and enhance competitiveness in the decarbonization of economic activity.
The AaaS scheme allows EU Member States to use these European auctions as project selection mechanisms. Once the EU-level auction is completed, countries contributing additional funds—such as Spain—may recover pre-selected national projects that were not awarded due to exhausted EU funds and finance them using their voluntary contribution. This enables Member States to support competitive domestic projects without launching separate national auctions.
GREEN HYDROGEN DEPLOYMENT IN SPAIN
This mechanism expands opportunities for Spanish companies to secure financing for new projects in the production and use of renewable hydrogen, strengthening the position of Spain’s industrial ecosystem, which is already highly competitive in this sector.
Spain’s participation in the Hydrogen Bank’s auction framework complements the range of national support instruments activated by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge to position green hydrogen as a core pillar of the country’s energy strategy. Including this new contribution, Spain has already allocated over 3.1 billion euros from the PRTR to scale up renewable hydrogen and its associated value chain.
