The German state of Saxony-Anhalt has announced €87 million ($102m) in new green hydrogen subsidies, targeting the central German mining area.
The state’s energy ministry on Thursday launched two separate funding calls, with funds made available from the European Just Transition Fund (JTF). The first, “Green Hydrogen: Electrolysers” funding pot, has earmarked €58m to support the installation of electrolysers and hydrogen storage facilities at power plants and former open-cast coal mines in the central German region.
It will focus on companies “that want to use green hydrogen in key energy-intensive industries such as the chemical industry,” the ministry says in a statement seen by Kallanish. While companies could previously get up to a maximum of €650,000 per megawatt (MW) of capacity for the construction of an electrolyser, this has now been increased to €2m.
The second €29m “Saxony-Anhalt Future Energies/Green Hydrogen” funding call targets facilities producing, storing, transporting, and distributing green hydrogen. Both the construction of new hydrogen pipelines and the repurposing of existing natural gas pipelines are also eligible. The maximum eligible funding under this has been increased from €450,000/MW of capacity to €2m.
“Due primarily to a lack of economic viability, companies are putting projects on hold or cancelling them altogether,” comments energy minister Armin Willingmann. “Therefore, we are now stepping up our support options. Our goal is to use EU funds to make the Central German region future-proof as an industrial location.”
Companies have until 7 August to submit funding applications.
The announcement comes as the new German government this week slashed hydrogen funding in the draft federal budget, from the previously allocated €3.75 billion to €1.28 billion. Kerstin Andreae, head of the industry association BDEW, said the draft “sends a totally wrong signal” for promoting the ramp-up of hydrogen.
“These drastic cuts in funding for hydrogen projects are damaging industry and the competitiveness of the industrial location,” Andreae added.
Currently, Berlin targets 10 gigawatts (GW) of installed electrolyser capacity by 2030.
