EU approves German subsidies for renewable hydrogen production

The European Commission has approved €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion) in German state aid to support renewable hydrogen production to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union.

"This investment in renewable hydrogen production is a step towards Europe’s decarbonization goals," said EU competition chief Teresa Ribera on Wednesday.

"The scheme will increase the supply of clean hydrogen and also support the building of cross-border infrastructure to connect production in the North Sea with industrial users elsewhere," said the EU commission vice president.

The subsidies are meant to "support construction of up to 1,000 MW of installed electrolyser capacity, and the production of up to 10 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen. This is estimated to avoid up to 55 million tonnes of CO2," the commission said.

Aid payments will be disbursed as grants and will be granted for up to 10 years.

State aid is strictly regulated in the EU to ensure fair competition between companies from economically strong member countries and those from less affluent regions.

EU green-lights state aid for semiconductor facilities

On Wednesday, the commission also gave its green lights to a total of €288 million in subsidies to build two new manufacturing facilities for semiconductors in Germany.

Carl Zeiss will receive €222 million in grants for a facility to build production equipment required to make semiconductors. Zadient Materials Europe will get a €66 million grant to build a manufacturing site for semiconductor source materials.