Hydrogen: 4.6 billion euros from federal government for "pioneering projects"

The German government is providing 4.6 billion euros in funding for 23 projects in Germany working on the production, transportation and storage of hydrogen. The EU Commission already approved the subsidies in February of this year, and now the federal government has officially handed over the funding decisions. Together with the funding from the respective federal states, the total investment amounts to 7.9 billion euros, with the participating companies themselves investing 3.3 billion euros.

The funded projects include a 100-megawatt electrolyzer in Hamburg-Moorburg. A hydrogen infrastructure is to be built on the site of a decommissioned power plant there. Of the 23 projects (PDF), a total of nine are concerned with the production of hydrogen using electrolysis, in one EWE project with a capacity of 370 MW. Other projects involve upgrading existing nuclear storage facilities or developing other storage facilities that can store up to 370 GWh or building hydrogen pipelines of up to 2000 km in length.

"Transnationally important projects"

These are "Important Projects of Common European Interest" (IPCEI), important transnational projects of common European interest, and therefore receive money from the state. This third wave of funding, known as "Hy2Infra", has already been preceded by two waves: "Hy2Tech" with funding for hydrogen technologies for end users and "Hy2Use" for hydrogen applications in industry. The fourth wave, "Hy2Move", is to follow with projects that were not bundled in the first three waves. These were approved by the EU Commission in May of this year.

A particular focus in the current Hy2Infra funding wave is on the interaction of individual projects. "For example, several projects form cross-state clusters of pipeline, storage and generation infrastructure with connections to industrial customers in energy-intensive sectors such as the steel and chemical industries," explains the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Other projects are intended to enable pipeline-based hydrogen imports to Germany by connecting neighboring countries such as the Netherlands. The IPCEI pipeline projects are also an important building block for the hydrogen core network , which is to be built by 2037.

The German government also wants to adopt an import strategy for hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives as quickly as possible. This should provide clarity on the overarching goals and framework conditions, the German import requirements for hydrogen and derivatives as well as the development of hydrogen partnerships and import corridors, writes the Ministry of Economic Affairs.

(anw)