State aid: Commission approves €149 million Romanian scheme under Recovery and Resilience Facility to support renewable hydrogen production

Daily News 08 / 08 / 2022


Economia - pubblicata il 09 Agosto 2022


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Source: European Commission Spokesperson’s Service

The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, a €149 million Romanian scheme made available through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (‘RRF’) to support
the production of renewable hydrogen. The measure aims to contribute to the development of renewable hydrogen in line with the objectives of the EU Hydrogen
Strategy
and the EU 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 scheme is aimed at supporting the construction of new installations for the production of renewable hydrogen, to achieve by 31 December 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 (i) companies of all sizes that are active in the production of hydrogen
or electricity, (ii) administrative-territorial units, or (iii) 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 Commission assessed and
approved the measure under EU State aid rules, in particular Article 107(3)(c)
of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’), which enables EU countries to support the development of certain economic activities subject to certain conditions, and the
Guidelines
on State aid for climate, environmental protection and energy 2022
. Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, 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.” A press release is available online.

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