Spain, Lithuania and Austria will launch national renewable hydrogen auctions under a European Commission initiative, earmarking a combined up to €836m ($883m).
Set up through the Commission’s Auction-as-a-Service (AaaS) scheme, the three individual states will fund the auctions through their own budgets to support green hydrogen projects.
Spain will allocate between €280m ($296m) and €400m ($422m) through its Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP). The total value will depend on the amount of cash the country spends on its existing scheme for hydrogen clusters.
Lithuania is setting aside around €36m ($38m) through its Modernisation Fund budget as the country aims to install 1.3GW of electrolysis by 2030.
As announced in February, Austria will use €400m from its national budget, with producers eligible to grab a maximum grant of €200m ($211m) per project with a maximum of 300MW.
Read more:Austria allocates €400m to subsidise renewable hydrogen production
Like the EU’s bloc-wide European Hydrogen Bank (EHB) auction, the AaaS schemes will provide a fixed premium per kg of hydrogen production for a maximum of 10 years to subsidise the difference between production costs and market willingness to pay.
The premium price results from the competitive bidding process, where projects are evaluated on a series of pass-fail qualification criteria.
National AaaS projects will also have to comply with Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO) criteria, and also come into operation, demonstrating 100% of nameplate capacity within five years.
“The AaaS scheme is a testimony to the benefits of cooperation between the Commission and the Member States,” said EU climate chief, Wopke Hoekstra. “I am pleased to see Spain, Lithuania and Austria embarking on this journey with us and I encourage all the other member states to consider this option.”
The three countries join only Germany in setting up the national auctions.
Read more:Germany earmarks €350m for EU-style renewable hydrogen auctions
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