Germany announces up to €3.53bn funding for hydrogen production, derivatives import

• BMWK funding for Climate and Transformation Fund for 2027-2036
• Dutch partnership accelerated to open up further import opportunities
• Details on new funding being ironed out, more info to follow

additional reporting by Gary Hornby

LONDON (ICIS)–The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) have announced additional funding of up to €3.53bn from the Climate and Transformation Fund.

The funding will be over a ten-year period beginning in 2027 and ending in 2036, and will be aimed at procuring renewable hydrogen and its derivatives from other global regions.

Germany is forecasting hydrogen demand within the country could reach as high as 130TWh by the end of the decade, more than double current levels, and is set to be at least 50%-reliant on imports to manage domestic demand for the fuel.

Some of these imports are due to arrive in the Netherlands before being shipped via pipeline into Germany, with the Netherlands seeing Germany as a key export market for hydrogen moving forward in the country’s national hydrogen strategy.

“In close cooperation with the European Hydrogen Bank (EHB), we are accelerating the hydrogen ramp-up together with the Netherlands and opening up attractive cooperation opportunities for partner countries,” BMWK said in the press release.

BMWK said that the core idea of the funding is a “double auction model” which will bridge the difference between the higher price of hydrogen on the global market and the lower price at which hydrogen can be resold regionally.

In June 2023, the German government’s decision to link the EHB with the H2Global instrument developed by Germany for the market ramp-up was seen as a major step towards securing hydrogen financial needs across the country and wider continent.