EC approves EUR 149 mln Romanian state aid scheme to support renewable hydrogen production

The European Commission (EC) said on August 8 that it approved a EUR 149 million Romanian scheme to support the production of renewable hydrogen. The scheme will be partially funded through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF).

“The measure aims to contribute to the development of renewable hydrogen in line with the objectives of the EU Hydrogen Strategy and the EU Green Deal. The scheme will also contribute to the objectives of the REPowerEU Plan to reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels and fast forward the green transition,” the Commission said.

The scheme will run until December 31, 2023, and is open to companies of all sizes that are active in the production of hydrogen or electricity, administrative-territorial units, or national institutes for research and development in the field of energy, including associations or partnerships formed by those actors.

The support will take the form of direct grants, and the maximum amount of aid that can be granted per project cannot exceed EUR 50 million.

The projects will be selected through a bidding process, where beneficiaries compete for the lowest amount of aid per MW of installed electrolysis capacity. The first call for projects was started in June 2022.

According to the EC, the scheme aims to support the construction of new installations for the production of renewable hydrogen, to achieve by December 31, 2025, renewable hydrogen production capacities of at least 100 MW in electrolysis installations producing at least 10,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year.

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