H2Global floats timeframe to announce winners of massive €900m hydrogen auctions — and confirms extra funding
German government has allocated more than €6bn to giant subsidy scheme for H2 imports to Europe
International green hydrogen producers could find out as soon as January who has been awarded ten-year offtake agreements and a share of €900m ($952m) in subsidies for European imports of green ammonia, methanol and e-fuels as part of Germany’s flagship H2Global scheme.
Stay ahead on hydrogen with our free newsletter
“The award procedure is currently ongoing, and we anticipate being able to announce the contract award in the first or second quarter of 2024,” she said. “However, this timeline is subject to various factors, many of which are beyond Hintco's control. Therefore, it is not possible to provide an exact date at this stage.”
The timeline depends on the readiness of participants to submit technical and financial bids and the complexity of the negotiations, among other factors, she added.
Susana Moreira, executive director at H2Global was more optimistic when speaking at a summit hosted by BloombergNEF in London recently, estimating that the results will be announced closer to the beginning of 2024.
“The project has been on-going…and they are currently in the bidding process, so I can’t divulge a lot about what’s going on because of that,” she said. “But we are hoping to be able to share the results of this auction during this winter, so probably the beginning of 2024.”
But Moreira also revealed that Berlin has now pledged more than €6bn to the programme.
“[The H2Global concept was] presented to various governments and the first that took on the idea was the German government,” she said. “They have since then allocated over €6bn to H2Global to conduct various auctions which are designed to facilitate the acquisition of clean hydrogen products.”
Deliveries are expected to begin at the end of 2024, into one of three ports located in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.
The H2Global Foundation is owned by its 54 industry “donors”, which include gas companies Uniper and BP, industrial gas firms Air Products and Linde, and hydrogen investor Hy24.
H2Global’s double-sided auction mechanism
Hintco auctions ten-year purchase agreements for hydrogen or its derivatives from suppliers, who competitively bid to offer the lowest possible price.
H2 buyers then bid for sales agreements from the state intermediary company, with the difference in buy and sell prices covered by government funding.
The first three H2Global auctions for imports of green ammonia, methanol and e-SAF respectively are currently evaluating bids, with deliveries from winners expected by the end of 2024.