Hydrogen industry groups demand EU funding overhaul after second auction underspend
Just EUR 300 million of the EUR 1.2 billion offered in the European Hydrogen Bank's second auction has reached signed projects. Hydrogen associations from more than a dozen countries want Brussels to fix the allocation process before the next round runs.
Spain illustrates the drop-off. Seven of the country's winning bidders went to contract on three, while the other four walked away from their awards.
Bidder appetite, however, has not cooled. The third auction round drew offers worth about six times the budget on the table.
Member states are running parallel pots through the Auction-as-a-Service channel, which lets national budgets piggyback on the Bank's tender machinery. Spain has earmarked EUR 377 million for electrolyser projects on that track.
The coordinated push to Brussels came from national associations in Spain, France, Italy, Ireland, Finland, Norway, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia, who told the European Commission that allocation and implementation rules need an overhaul. In the same intervention, they asked Brussels to keep the Bank running past the scheduled third tender and to lock in at least three more rounds after it.
On a separate track, the Clean Hydrogen Partnership opened its second Project Development Assistance call, which will pick as many as 13 projects for hands-on help with financial structuring, permitting and consortium building.
The associations frame the problem in operational terms: oversubscribed auctions are not producing operational electrolysers. Without changes to how grants are awarded and policed, they argue, repeat rounds will keep clearing on paper while plants stay unbuilt.
Source: pv-magazine.com (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink