Support for the Production of Hydrogen and Other Renewable Gases
In Portugal, on March 13th, the Ministry of Environment and Climate Action announced the launch of the second phase of the “Support for the Production of Hydrogen and Other Renewable Gases” program, with a budget of €83 million.
Financed through the Environmental Fund, which acts as an intermediate beneficiary of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), the call for applications is now open for producers of gases from renewable sources (primarily hydrogen and biomethane), exhausting the total budget allocated for this type of investment.
In the first phase of this program, 40 applications were received, of which 25 projects were supported, with contracts already in execution, totaling €102 million. In the second phase of support, the application period runs until July 31st, 2023.
The aim of this call for applications is to support the production of renewable hydrogen and biomethane, with projects that increase the use of biological waste for the production of renewable gases being given higher scores in the final evaluation.
The European Commission also announced that it is preparing the first pilot auctions dedicated entirely to the production of renewable hydrogen. These will be the first financial instruments of the newly announced Hydrogen Bank.
With a budget of €800 million, the European hydrogen auctions will be launched in the autumn of 2023 under the Innovation Fund. In practice, the hydrogen producers who win this tender procedure will receive a subsidy in the form of a fixed premium per kg of hydrogen produced, for a maximum of 10 years of operation.
In Portugal, the government wants to create a centralized system for the purchase and sale of biomethane and green hydrogen, to be determined by the government by June 30th. With the approval of the Energy Services Regulatory Authority (ERSE), the aim is to create a mechanism to support the production of renewable gases or low-carbon gases, with a view to achieving cost parity between biomethane, hydrogen, and natural gas.
To read more about it see the link with all the informations about the announcement: Link Here
