EU Commission vice president Frans Timmermans spurred the hydrogen community, gathered in the vintage halls of the Brussels World Expo during the Hydrogen Days 2022 from October 24 -28, 2022,  to take advantage of the upcoming calls European hydrogen that will see up to €3bn ($3bn) allocated for schemes across the entire hydrogen value chain, made available by the EU’s €38bn Innovation Fund. The bbudget would “cement the role of hydrogen and our strategy to move away from Russian fossil fuels” by  including funding for electrolyser manufacturing, renewables components and green H2 production in heavy industry. A funding call for the new initiative will launch next week on November 3, 2022, with a view to accelerating progress towards the EU’s REPowerEU goals — including its target of producing 10 million tonnes of hydrogen per year. Funding from the European Hydrogen Bank will be available next year in the form of a contracts for difference scheme that will make the market price of green hydrogen competitive with fossil fuel-derived grey H2, Timmermans added .

Around €1bn of November’s funding will be aiming at decarbonizing heavy industry — mostly likely green steel (like the recently annouced H2 Green Steel  $4.5bn debt financing for a hydrogen-based plant), ammonia and chemicals production — including renewable hydrogen production and use.

€700m will be made available for manufacturing of key components for renewable energy, energy storage and renewable hydrogen, such as PV cells and electrolysers

€300m will be used for mid-sized pilot projects with “deep decarbonisation potential”.
€1bn will go to general decarbonisation projects, namely in renewable energy, energy-intensive industries and energy storage or carbon capture.

These sums complement the respectively 5.4 bln state aid that the EU Commission granted a few Member States in July 2022  to support their industries in the H2 IPCEI H2 Tech wave and the 5.2 bln state aid that has been granted to Member States to support  their industries in the H2IPCEI Hy2Use wave.

Necessary co-funding to cover CAPEX and OPEX for mobile applications remains limited in EU programs, first hydrogen inland waterway vessels for example are expected to sail by the end of this year and have been funded through a patchwork of small funding schemes.

Photo: courtesy TSO2020