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The European Commission has today approved 24 German projects as part of the Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) Hydrogen programme. The projects submitted by Germany are part of the so-called “infrastructure wave” (Hy2Infra) of the IPCEI Hydrogen, which includes a total of 33 projects from several EU Member States that have received joint approval under State aid law. Now that approval on EU level has been granted, Germany will swiftly issue the relevant funding approval notices. The greenlight from the Commission is an important milestone for the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action in its efforts to ramp up Germany’s hydrogen economy and develop the hydrogen value chain in Europe as a whole. The Federal Government and the respective federal states have earmarked around €4.6 billion in funding for Germany’s IPCEI Hydrogen infrastructure projects.

The funding support is being provided for projects along the entire hydrogen value chain, from the production of green hydrogen to transport and storage infrastructure and the use of hydrogen in industry. The projects in Germany are to make a key contribution towards implementing Germany’s National Hydrogen Strategy and achieving the goals of the European Union’s environmental, energy and transport strategy. The German IPCEI Hydrogen pipeline projects also form a crucial part of the hydrogen core network.

Federal Minister Robert Habeck said: “The projects in the Hy2Infra wave are important building blocks for ramping up the hydrogen economy in Germany and Europe. I am delighted that the European Commission has now granted the State aid approval. The German government recognises the importance of strengthening the German hydrogen economy along the entire value chain to enable a rapid market ramp-up. Germany and the other participating Member States can now move on swiftly to implemention phase with the companies.”

Following an expression of interest procedure, the companies selected for the IPCEI Hydrogen were able to form value chains and clusters across Europe in a so-called match-making process. These were registered with the European Commission in four topic-based “IPCEI waves” – Hy2Infra focusing on generation and infrastructure, Hy2Tech on technology, Hy2Use on utilisation and Hy2Move on mobility. Germany has taken on the task of coordinating between the European Commission and the Member States across the approval process.

The go-ahead from the Commission for the Hy2Infra wave now means that the majority of the projects selected by the Federal Government in May 2021 have been granted approval under State aid law. The Hy2Tech and Hy2Use waves were approved by the Commission back in 2022 and are already being implemented. A number of other key German hydrogen projects were separated out from the IPCEI Hydrogen in the course of the procedure and funding approval pursued on a different basis under State aid law (especially under the Climate, Energy and Environmental Aid Guidelines and the General Block Exemption Regulation).

Some seven EU Member States (Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Slovakia) are involved in the Hy2Infra wave that has now been approved. The projects involved cover a total of over 2,700 kilometres of pipeline network, more than 3.2 GW of hydrogen production capacity and almost 370 GWh of storage capacity and are thus making a key contribution to developing a green hydrogen infrastructure for Europe. Further information on the projects can be found at https://ipcei-hydrogen.eu/.

German companies will invest around €3.4 billion of private funds in the 24 projects within the Hy2Infra wave. Together with the funding provided by the Federal Government and the respective federal states, the total investment volume amounts to around €8 billion. For all projects (with the exception of an offshore pipeline for which the ministry is the sole funder), 70% is being provided by the Federal Government and 30% by the respective federal states. Part of the funding will come from the German Recovery and Resilience Plan (DARP), which is financed by the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) under NextGenerationEU.

Press Release of the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (Link)