At a workshop on the European Hydrogen Bank, organised by the European Commission’s DG CLIMA, it was announced that the budget for the second round of auctions will be set at €1.2 billion. It will be held later this year.
This is good news for the industry. This amount represents 25% of the 2024 budget of the Innovation Fund, the rest being devoted to batteries (€1 billion) and conventional subsidies (€2.6 billion), which also support innovative hydrogen projects. However, Hydrogen Europe would have preferred more.
“We are glad to see the next auction moving forward with a higher budget than the pilot, though it is still short of the €3bn budget announced back in September 2022. We expect the remaining €1bn to be allocated to the next auction to ensure projects continue to receive this much-needed support to be operational by 2030 and help reach the 2030 climate and energy targets,” said Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, Hydrogen Europe CEO.
Read more on https://hydrogentoday.info/en/hydrogen-bank-auctions-europe/