A Dutch government plan to subsidise new green hydrogen plants with €1bn in grants will go ahead after passing EU scrutiny on competition and state-aid.
Tenders will now go out for projects together worth more than 200MW of electrolysis capacity, with grants awarded by the end of the year.
Individual projects must be at least 500kW in size.
The grants will cover up to 80% of companies’ investment costs.
Recipients must comply with EU criteria for what counts as green hydrogen.
To be green, the energy-intensive electrolysis, which separates hydrogen and oxygen from water molecules, must come from renewable sources.
Fits with EU energy strategy
The European Commission ruled that such substantial state aid was acceptable because it supports the EU’s hydrogen strategy and the European Green Deal.
It will also help the “REPowerEU” plan, set up to compensate for the loss of natural gas from Russia.
In the Netherlands, the scheme is intended to achieve 500MW of electrolyser capacity in 2025 and up to 4GW by 2030.
The Dutch government hopes it will prevent 55,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere every year until 2030.
It will also support the EU’s ambition of installing at least 6GW of renewable hydrogen production capacity by 2024, and at least 40GW by 2030.
EU competition commissioner Margrethe Vestager said renewable hydrogen was a key aspect of the EU’s climate neutrality goal.
“This Dutch scheme will help scaling up the production of renewable hydrogen in the Netherlands by providing support to electrolysers projects of all sizes, while ensuring that any potential competition distortions are kept to the minimum,” she said.
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