Canada and Germany launch joint funding window for hydrogen export projects

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Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck and his Canadian counterpart Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the establishment of a joint H2Global funding window today.

The MoU was signed in the context of the German-Canadian energy and hydrogen partnership in order to promote the production and sale of green hydrogen. It aims to extend the successful German H2Global funding/auction model to include Canada: the Canadian government is committed to bear part of the difference between the buying price and the selling price.

Federal Minister Habeck said: "We welcome the progress that has been made in Canada to develop several green hydrogen and ammonia projects. Although a number of challenges still need to be mastered, we believe that a joint H2Global funding window can play an important role to compensate for the difference between the supply price and the demand price. We are thus supporting the development of H2 production capacities with the aim to increase the availability of hydrogen."

Since the establishment of the German-Canadian hydrogen alliance in August 2022, great progress has been made regarding a number of planned green hydrogen export projects in Canada and new hydrogen partnerships between Germany and Canadian provinces (Newfoundland and Labrador), ports and companies.

The H2Global Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in the context of the 1st bilateral conference for hydrogen customers hosted by the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce, to which the Ministers had invited Canadian hydrogen project developers and German hydrogen buyers. The conference provides a platform for the participating companies to advance the talks about the establishment of a transatlantic hydrogen trading corridor and to identify challenges and barriers regarding the realisation of initial projects. In order to analyse these challenges in depth and draw up recommendations for political solutions, the Ministers decided to set up a bilateral multistakeholder task force.

In the context of the H2Global "double auction model", the difference between two prices, i.e. the higher price of hydrogen on the global market and the lower price at which hydrogen can be sold at regional level and used economically, is compensated for. Specifically, international auctions take place for purchases of green hydrogen and its derivatives on behalf of a subsidiary of the H2Global Foundation. As a result, long-term contracts are awarded to the bidders who submit the most economically advantageous tenders. This creates planning security for the providers to invest more in hydrogen production. In the second auctions, the hydrogen amounts thus purchased are sold to buyers in the EU at a competitive price. This also gives them a reliable basis on which to plan investments for the use of hydrogen.

The conference is being organised in close cooperation with the Hamburg Senate for Economic Affairs.