The European Commission has awarded €4.8 billion ($5.2 billion) from the EU Innovation Fund to 85 net-zero projects, including several clean hydrogen projects and electrolyser manufacturers.

The EU ETS Innovation Fund offers financial incentives to companies to invest in net-zero and low-carbon technologies using revenues raised from the EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS). The fund’s call for proposals last year received 337 applications, exceeding the initially earmarked budget of €4 billion by around six times.

Kallanish understands the winners include six clean hydrogen production projects and eight electrolyser manufacturing firms. Within clean hydrogen, four green hydrogen projects, one blue hydrogen project, and one waste-to-hydrogen facility will receive the grants.

The winning projects include Statkraft’s 200-megawatt H2HubEmden project in Germany; Electrabel’s 1-gigawatt H2BE blue hydrogen project in Belgium; and Solvay Chemicals’ 30-MW HydroGreen project in Finland.

EDF’s HYODE project in France and Air Liquide’s ENHANCE project in Belgium are also among the winners. Plagazi’s Köping Hydrogen Park in Sweden, which plans to produce 12,000 tonnes/year of hydrogen from over 60,000 tonnes of waste, has also secured funding.

The commission, however, has yet to disclose the size of the individual grants.

Meanwhile, electrolyser manufacturers who have won the funding include thyssenkrupp nucera, HydrogenPro, Nel, Advent Technologies, and Elcogen. Nel announced earlier this week it secured a grant of €135m. Meanwhile, HydrogenPro’s Danish subsidiary has secured €16.5m for the “large-scale production of high-performing electrodes.”

“The fund is once again demonstrating how the EU ETS is a great tool in reducing emissions, and funding the projects we need to build a climate-neutral and competitive Europe,” comments Wopke Hoekstra, commissioner for climate action.

The winners are expected to sign their grant agreements with the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) in the first quarter of 2025.