The first auction of the European hydrogen bank selected seven projects that will be supported with around 720 million euros, and among them are two projects in Portugal.
Both of them are located in Sines, one by Galp and the other by Madoquapower2X, the European Commission revealed on Tuesday.
Galp's project aims to convert the grey hydrogen consumed at its Sines refinery into green hydrogen, and the Portuguese company has secured EU support of 84.2 million euros (which will be channelled into its project over 10 years). Galp applied for support of 0.39 euros per kilogram of green hydrogen (estimating total production at 216,000 tonnes).
Madoquapower2X's project, called MP2X, applied for support requesting 0.48 euros per kilogram (for a total production of green hydrogen of 511,000 tonnes). This project will absorb the largest amount of support in this first auction organised by the European Commission, guaranteeing more than 245 million euros.
In the list of seven projects chosen (out of 132 competitors), there were also three projects in Spain (one of which will receive 230 million euros in support, another 24.6 million euros and a third 8.1 million), and the remaining €126m went to two projects, in Norway and Finland.
Twenty-one German projects participated in the auction, without success.
Projects must start production by late 2029 or be held liable for breaking their contract.
The €720 million awarded will result in the production of 1.58 million tonnes of hydrogen in total, the Commission said. This is 1.5% of the EU’s 2030 goal of having 10 million tonnes of hydrogen produced domestically per year.