In a joint press release issued on Monday 18 November, the European Commission, Spain, Lithuania and Austria announced new financial support for the development of renewable hydrogen, as part of the second European Hydrogen Bank auction under its voluntary ‘Auctions-as-a-Service’ scheme (see EUROPE 13492/12).
This new auction will be launched on 3 December, with funding of €1.2 billion from the Innovation Fund. In addition, more than €700 million of national funds from Spain, Lithuania and Austria will support renewable hydrogen production projects in their countries.
Spain will allocate €280 to €400 million using funds from its recovery and resilience plan, Lithuania will release €36 million from the budget of its modernisation fund and Austria will allocate €400 million from its national budget.
In this way, the participating companies in these three countries are submitting a single bid for two different sources of financing. “The service enables Member States to finance additional projects in their country, even after the Innovation Fund budget has been fully allocated”, explains the European Commission in a press release.
It encourages other Member States to participate in these ‘Auctions-as-a-Service’ in the future.
Germany was the very first country to take part in the first European Hydrogen Bank auction last year, with a budget of €350 million (see EUROPE 13318/30). (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)