The European Commission has confirmed that seven of the 15 projects selected for grants under the European Hydrogen Bank’s second auction round have been withdrawn from the subsidy scheme.
The seven projects make up 1.88 GW of new electrolyzer capacity, representing the majority of the 2.3 GW awarded under the auction round in May, which allocated €992 million ($1.16 billion) of the available €1.2 billion.
According to analysis by S&P Global, the commission explained in an update that the seven projects either chose not to proceed with the grant agreement procedure or were unable to provide the signed completion guarantee.
The withdrawn projects consist of four based in Spain, two in Germany and one in the Netherlands and had fixed premium bid prices between €0.20/kg and €0.60/kg.
Among them is the 560 MW Zeevonk Electrolyser project in the Netherlands, which confirmed its withdrawal last month due to infrastructure delays pushing back its expected completion date. The 367.5 MW Kaskade project, belonging to Meridiam SAS in Germany, and Galena Renovables' 252 MW Villamartin H2 project in Spain are also on the list.
As a result of the withdrawals, ten projects from the commission's reserve list have been invited to prepare grant agreements. The projects, eight of which are located in Spain, alongside one each in Germany and Portugal, have fixed premium bid prices between €0.64/kg and €1.22/kg and a combined electrolyzer capacity of 774 MW.
These selected projects will now be required to sign a completion guarantee within three months of receiving their invitation to sign a grant agreement, equivalent to 8% of the total grant request.
The commission has said it expects all grant agreements under the second auction round to be signed by the end of the year, after which the projects must reach financial close within 2.5 years and start production within five years. Once operational, the projects will receive their fixed premium subsidy per kilogram of renewable hydrogen produced over a ten year period.
According to the commission's website, a third hydrogen bank auction is planned before the end of the year with a budget of up to €1 billion.
Earlier this month, a report from the Hydrogen Council found global investment in hydrogen has topped $110 billion, $19 billion of which comes from Europe.
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