Germany grants €3.5 billion for green hydrogen import program

Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) has allocated €3.53 billion for the country’s hydrogen importing mechanism, H2Global Foundation, to fund future auctions for renewable hydrogen and its derivatives.

On February 12, H2Global issued a statement saying that BMWK had provided its subsidiary HINT.CO with a grant notification for €3.53 billion.

Within the H2Global funding mechanism, HINT.CO serves as an intermediary to purchase and sell green power-to-X (PtX) products. Its core task is the implementation of competitive bidding processes for the purchase and sale of clean hydrogen-based products and other low-carbon commodities. 

The Hamburg-based foundation further explained that the grant is tied to the next iteration of double-sided tenders modeled after the H2Global mechanism. Together with the €900 million from the first funding window and the funds committed to the joint Germany-Netherlands window, the total public capital committed to the H2Global approach is now at €4.73 billion.

“As the first round of tenders is nearing its completion, we are happy to see the continued trust in the effectiveness and efficiency of the H2Global mechanism. We look forward to delivering the first results and to scaling up our efforts towards creating a global market for hydrogen,” H2Global said.

H2Global was established in 2021 to implement a funding concept for buying green hydrogen or derivatives abroad with long-term contracts for resale in Germany via annual auctions.

In 2023, it was linked with the European Hydrogen Bank, an initiative by the European Commission to facilitate both renewable hydrogen production within the EU and imports, to enhance global hydrogen ramp-up.

The move was made to open the H2Global to all Member States interested in running their own hydrogen tenders. The initiative will also jointly develop a European auction targeting international hydrogen imports.