Applications have closed for two EU Innovation Fund auctions offering €2.3 billion to back cleaner industrial heat and hydrogen production projects, after attracting bids worth far more than the available budgets.
A pilot auction focused on cutting emissions from industrial heat drew 85 bids from 14 countries, with applicants seeking €1.4 billion from a €1 billion pot, the European Commission revealed on Friday.
Industries submitting bids included chemicals, food and drink, pharmaceuticals, textiles, pulp and paper, glass, and iron and steel, it said.
The heat auction covered electrified and renewable heat technologies such as heat pumps, electric boilers and furnaces, solar thermal and geothermal energy, and thermal energy storage.
Over five years, the submitted proposals were estimated to avoid 3.78 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions and produce about 19.40 terawatt-hours of thermal energy.
The hydrogen production auction attracted 58 bids from projects in 11 countries requesting €8.4 billion, against a budget of €1.3 billion.
The bids could result in 4.3 gigawatts of installed electrolyser capacity — equipment that uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Extra national funding from Germany and Spain
Germany and Spain are also putting national funding into the same auction framework — €1.3 billion from Germany and €490 million from Spain — on top of the €2.3 billion from the Innovation Fund, according to the EU’s statement.
Spain’s contribution includes €440 million for hydrogen projects and €50 million for industrial heat projects.
The bids will now be evaluated by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency, with initial results expected between May and June 2026 and final awards expected by the fourth quarter of 2026.
Winning heat projects will have up to two years to reach financial close and four years to start operating, while selected hydrogen projects will have up to two and a half years to reach financial close and five years to begin producing hydrogen.
