This week saw results announced from the second auction for green hydrogen subsidies from the European Hydrogen Bank.

The outcome is the awarding of “EUR 992 million (USD 1117.2m) to support 15 renewable hydrogen production projects”. This includes a portion specifically carved out for projects in the maritime sector, which “will receive EUR 96.7 million”.

This total of fifteen projects won out after “61 bids from 11 countries in the oversubscribed auction”.

All three of the successful maritime projects are based in Norway but, for non-maritime projects, sunny Spain came out well, with eight projects on the winners’ podium. Finland gained a single one, while Germany (two) and the Netherlands (one) finally broke the Iberia/Scandinavia stranglehold that was evident in last year’s first auction.

It looks like scale may have played an important role in bidding down to competitive costs in those central European cases: the biggest sized winner in the whole auction was “the Zeevonk electrolyser in the Netherlands with a capacity of 560 MW” and second was “the 367.5-MW KASKADE project of Meridiam SAS in Germany”.

Like last time, the subsidy amounts required for a winning bid proved to be pretty small, at a “fixed premium support between EUR 0.20 and EUR 0.60 per kg” for the non-maritime projects. The three maritime projects saw a wider and higher range: “between EUR 0.45 and EUR 1.88 per kg”.

Next steps are for grant agreements to be signed, “expected… by September or October 2025”.

As for the 3rd instalment of this saga, that’s “planned for the end of 2025 with a budget of up to EUR 1 billion”.

Subsidy of a different type has been announced in Japan, where “the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) plans to provide hydrogen refuelling incentives for commercial vehicles”.

The aim is to “narrow the cost gap with diesel fuel while enlisting local government support to increase adoption rates”, focusing on six selected areas where demand and local support are thought to be high (for example, one of these is Aichi Prefecture, which “has already committed to deploying 7,000 hydrogen-powered trucks and buses by 2030”).

The new subsidies are certainly bold: they “will cover up to three-quarters of the fuel price difference—approximately ¥700 per kilogram (about USD $4.83)”. A single fill-up of a large truck could benefit from “savings of around ¥21,000 (about USD $144)” as a result.

This fuel-subsidy approach marks a change from earlier government initiatives which “mainly focused on reducing vehicle purchase costs and building hydrogen stations”.

With only “currently about 160 commercial hydrogen vehicles on the road”, it’s fair to say that a new approach is certainly needed, if Japan’s future hydrogen vehicle aspirations are to be met.

Also in Japan, energy major Eneos has started work with Honeywell UOP “to help build the world’s first commercial-scale hydrogen supply chain using a liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) technology”.