The European Commission (EC) has selected the winners of the second European Hydrogen Bank (EHB) auction, which will receive nearly €1 billion in funding to produce renewable hydrogen, including producers with off-takers in the maritime sector.
The second EHB auction was launched in December 2024 and ended on February 20, 2025, attracting 61 bids from projects in 11 countries , with eight bids submitted by hydrogen producers with off-takers in the maritime sector.
On May 20, the Commission announced the selection of 15 renewable hydrogen production projects across the European Economic Area (EEA), which will receive a total of €992 million from the Innovation Fund sourced from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS).
Located across five countries, the selected projects are expected to produce nearly 2.2 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen over ten years in sectors such as transportation, the chemical industry, or the production of methanol and ammonia, avoiding more than 15 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
The subsidy will help the winning bidders close the price difference between their production costs and the market price and accelerate the deployment of cleaner fuels, the EC explained.
Each subsidy for the 15 projects ranges from €8 million to €246 million over a period up to 10 years.
This auction was also the first to provide a dedicated budget for hydrogen producers with off-takers in the maritime sector, which are entities using the hydrogen produced by the project for carrying out or making use of bunkering activities.
As a result, three bids receiving €96.7 million in grants were selected in this category, all located in Norway:
In addition, Spain, Lithuania, and Austria are allocating up to €836 million in national funding for projects in their countries through the ‘Auctions-as-a-Service’ feature that allows Member States to identify and fund eligible projects in their territories that meet the auction’s qualification criteria but cannot be funded by the Innovation Fund due to budgetary limitations.
The projects selected under the second EHB auction will now prepare their grant agreement with the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). Agreements are expected to be signed by September/October 2025.
As explained, signed projects are required to reach financial close within a maximum of two and a half years after signature and to start producing renewable hydrogen within a period of five years. They will receive the fixed premium subsidy for a period of up to ten years for certified and verified renewable hydrogen production.
As announced in the Clean Industrial Deal, a third European Hydrogen Bank auction is planned for the end of 2025 with a budget of up to €1 billion.
The Commission also intends to launch the Hydrogen Mechanism under the European Hydrogen Bank to bring together buyers and sellers and enable market participants to share information and find potential commercial partners.