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Electrolyzer for the production of green hydrogen
Photo: Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
Germany and other EU states are allowed to support a European hydrogen project with up to 6.9 billion euros. The EU Commission has now approved billions in funding to support the energy transition, as the Brussels authority announced. The Commission assumes that the funding will mobilize additional private investments of around 5.4 billion euros.
The project – the so-called infrastructure wave called “Hy2Infra” – consists of 33 individual projects from 32 companies. There are 24 projects in Germany, and the federal and state governments want to provide a total of around 3.4 billion euros for this, which should trigger around 4.6 billion euros in further private investments. France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Slovakia are also involved in the infrastructure wave.
The energy company RWE, for example, is participating from Germany. The participating companies will also work with external partners such as potential customers and universities across Europe. According to the Ministry of Economics, the projects were selected by the black-red federal government in May 2021.
The responsible EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that, among others, participants in the “West German Cluster” are building three electrolyzers in the Rhine-Ruhr area. Hydrogen is produced with these devices. Powered by renewable energies, hydrogen from electrolyzers can be a climate-friendly alternative to gas or can be used as fuel for trucks. Part of the project is also an offshore pipeline project in Germany, through which hydrogen is to be produced using wind energy from the North Sea.
Vestager announced that the hydrogen produced will be available to companies in the steel, cement, chemical and refinery sectors as well as the mobility sector by mid-2027. This is intended to significantly reduce climate-damaging CO₂ emissions.
Because the production of hydrogen has been officially identified as a common European interest, the project was launched as a so-called “Important Project of Common European Interest” (IPCEI). This means that less strict rules apply when companies are supported with state money. It is already the third IPCEI to promote the hydrogen industry. A similar IPCEI exists to support the European battery industry.
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