Germany grants EUR 4.6bn to hydrogen IPCEIs

The German government and states have granted EUR 4.6 billion (USD 5bn) in funding to 23 hydrogen projects covering the entire value chain as part of the IPCEI Hy2Infra package approved by the European Commission (EC) in February.

Economy minister Robert Habeck and several state economy ministers have handed over the funding notices, giving the green light to commence the implementation of these projects.

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The projects involve the deployment of up to 1.4 GW of hydrogen production capacity powered by renewable energy; up to 370 GWh of innovative hydrogen storage solutions; up to 2,000 km of pipelines for hydrogen transport and liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC) for the transport of around 1,800 tonnes of hydrogen per year.

Several projects are forming cross-state clusters of pipeline, storage, and generation infrastructure, connecting to industrial customers in energy-intensive sectors such as steel and chemicals. Other projects aim to enable future pipeline-based hydrogen imports to Germany by linking pipelines from neighbouring countries like the Netherlands.

The Hamburg Green Hydrogen Hub (HGHH) project, developed by Hamburger Energiewerke (HEnW) and its project partner Luxcara, as well as Gasnetz Hamburg will receive more than EUR 250 million from the federal government and the city of Hamburg. The funding will go for the construction of a 100 MW electrolyser on the site of the former Moorburg coal-fired power plant and the first 40 kilometres of the HH-WIN hydrogen distribution network.

A full list of the 23 projects is available on the economy ministry's website in German.

A portion of the EUR 4.6 billion funding is backed by the German Recovery and Resilience Plan and the companies involved are investing an additional EUR 3.3 billion. Thus, the total investment volume by 2030 will amount to about EUR 7.9 billion.

Commenting on the event, Habeck said: "We are giving the green light for the construction of electrolysers in the three-digit megawatt class, thus enabling important progress in the domestic production of green hydrogen. An efficient hydrogen infrastructure plays a key role in enabling the decarbonisation of industry and the energy sector. Hydrogen pipelines will be the lifeblood of industrial centres. By doing so, we are creating the conditions for climate-neutral growth."