Last December, the European Hydrogen Bank launched its second auction to award up to 1.2 billion euros to renewable hydrogen producers in the European Economic Area (EEA). A total of 61 bids were received from 11 countries. Eight of the bids were submitted by hydrogen producers in the maritime sector, under the dedicated maritime topic.
The total support requested exceeds 4.8 billion euros, four times the available budget provided by the Innovation Fund. All bids together account for a total electrolyser capacity of approximately 6.3 gigawatts (GW). Over ten years, these projects are expected to produce more than 7.3 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen, which would cover seven per cent of the EU’s REPowerEU goal for domestic renewable hydrogen production by 2030.
The support is granted as a fixed premium per kilogram of hydrogen produced for up to ten years. It will cover the gap between the cost of production and the price buyers are currently willing to pay for renewable hydrogen.
EU Member States can also benefit from an Auctions-as-a-Service mechanism, whereby the results of the auction may attract additional national funding for further projects. Under the second auction, Spain, Lithuania and Austria are participating in this scheme, with up to 836 million euros in national funds.
The European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) is currently evaluating the submitted bids based on the pass/fail qualification criteria outlined in the call text. All passing bids will then be ranked according to their bid price. The institution plans to announce the evaluation results by the end of May 2025.
Grant agreements are expected to be signed by November 2025. The selected projects will need to reach financial close within 2.5 years and start producing renewable hydrogen within five years. They will receive the subsidy upon certified and verified renewable hydrogen production.
With the finalisation of the evaluation, the European Commission will draw on the lessons learned from this second auction to prepare the terms and conditions for a third auction, which it aims to launch before the end of 2025.
