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 has been issued at EU level, Germany will swiftly issue the relevant funding approval notices. The Federal Government and the respective Länder have earmarked around €4.6 billion in funding for Germany’s IPCEI Hydrogen infrastructure projects.

Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck said: “The projects in the Hy2Infra wave of the IPCEI Hydrogen 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. The German IPCEI hydrogen pipeline projects are a key element of the hydrogen core network. Together with the companies and the Länder concerned, we can now quickly implement the 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 and transport. 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.

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.

German companies are contributing around €3.4 billion to the 24 projects of the Hy2Infra wave. Including funding by the Federal Government and the Länder, the total investment volume amounts to approximately €8 billion. For all projects (with the exception of an offshore pipeline) for which the ministry is providing full funding, 70% is being provided by the Federal Government and 30% by the respective Länder. 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.

The approval for the Hy2Infra wave covers the majority of the projects selected by the federal government in May 2021. 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 (including projects for the transformation of the steel industry).

Further information about the projects is available at https://ipcei-hydrogen.eu/.