The cabinet is making a subsidy pot of 250 million euros available for 5 to 10 smaller projects to produce hydrogen with renewable energy. From the end of November, parties can apply for subsidies, reports climate minister Rob Jetten. The winning projects will be announced in early 2024.
To ensure that more and more renewable hydrogen is produced in the Netherlands, the Cabinet wants as many parties as possible to gain experience with electrolysis (the process of making renewable hydrogen). To achieve this, the Cabinet wants multiple projects to be able to make use of the available budget; therefore, only projects up to 50 megawatts are eligible. In this way, knowledge will be widely disseminated and lessons with technology and permitting procedures, among other things, can accelerate the development of subsequent projects.
Grid congestion
All types of smaller projects are eligible for this grant scheme, as long as they use electricity produced by wind or solar farms. For example, these projects can provide hydrogen to local users, such as gas stations, small industrial businesses, farms or homes. Companies can also use these projects to help prevent grid congestion and use the hydrogen to store surplus renewable energy locally for a later time.
Winning parties will receive compensation to close the cost gap between renewable and fossil hydrogen (the uneconomic top). Starting in late November, projects can apply for the grant. Winners will be announced in early 2024. To ensure that the projects are realized quickly, one of the requirements of the grant is that the projects be completed within 4 years. So companies have until 2028 to realize their electrolysis project.
In the Climate Accord, it was agreed that the Netherlands should have at least 4 gigawatts of electrolysis capacity by 2030. Subsidy schemes such as the IPCEI or SDE++ already exist for larger hydrogen projects. A tender for large hydrogen projects will also be opened in the spring of 2024 with a budget of €1 billion. More information on this will follow in the coming months.
