The EU Commission has received 61 bids from projects in 11 countries for the European Hydrogen Bank’s second auction to produce green hydrogen. The total grant support requested is more than €4.8bn, four times the available budget of €1.2bn provided by the Innovation Fund, for a total electrolyser capacity of around 6.3 GW with a potential capacity to produce more than 7.3 Mt of renewable H2 over a ten-year period. The green hydrogen producers have bid for support for a fixed premium per kilogram of renewable hydrogen produced over a period of up to 10 years that should cover the gap between the cost of production and the price buyers are currently willing to pay for renewable hydrogen.
The bids will be evaluated and ranked by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). The evaluation results will be announced by the end of May 2025 and the signing of the grant agreements is planned for November 2025. The projects will have to reach financial close within 2.5 years and start producing renewable hydrogen within five years of signing the agreement. They will receive the awarded fixed premium subsidy for up to 10 years upon certified and verified renewable hydrogen production.
The European Hydrogen Bank is an initiative to facilitate the EU's domestic production and imports of renewable hydrogen to reach the EU’s objective of 20 Mt of hydrogen in its energy mix by 2030. The EU Commission expects to launch its third auction for hydrogen before the end of 2025.
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