Romanian scheme to support the production of renewable hydrogen will be funded through the RRF
The European Commission has approved a € 149 million Romanian scheme made available through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) to support the production of renewable hydrogen.
The development of renewable hydrogen is in line with the objectives of the European Union (E.U.) Hydrogen Strategy and the E.U. Green Deal. The scheme will also contribute to the objectives of the REPowerEU Plan to reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels and fast forward the green transition.
The Romanian scheme, which will run until December 31, 2023, will be partially funded through the RRF, following the European Commission’s positive assessment of the Romanian Recovery and Resilience Plan and its adoption by the European Council.
Speaking on the occasion, the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for a Europe fit for the Digital Age – Margrethe Vestager said, “This €149 million scheme enables Romania to step up its renewable hydrogen production capacities, while limiting possible distortions of competition. Not only will the measure adopted today contribute to the achievement of the EU Hydrogen Strategy and the EU Green Deal ambitions. It will also help Romania in replacing natural gas, coal and oil in hard-to-decarbonise industries and transport sectors, and in reducing its dependence on imported fossil fuels, in line with the REPowerEU Plan.”
The scheme is aimed at supporting the construction of new installations for the production of renewable hydrogen, to achieve by December 31, 2025 renewable hydrogen production capacities of at least 100 MW in electrolysis installations producing at least 10,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year.
The scheme is open to companies of all sizes that are active in the production of hydrogen or electricity, administrative-territorial units or national institutes for research and development in the field of energy, including associations or partnerships formed by those actors. Under the scheme, the support will take the form of direct grants. The maximum amount of aid that can be granted per project will not exceed € 50 million.
The projects will be selected through a transparent and non-discriminatory bidding process, where beneficiaries will compete for the lowest amount of aid per MW of installed electrolysis capacity.
The European Commission found that the scheme facilitates the development of certain economic activities, in particular the production of renewable hydrogen. It has an ‘incentive effect’, as the beneficiaries would not carry out the investments in renewable hydrogen to the same extent without the public support. The scheme also offers necessary safeguards limiting the aid to the minimum will be in place, including a competitive bidding process for awarding the aid.
