The European Commission approved the package, which includes funding for research projects under the country’s National Hydrogen Strategy, after it surpassed targets related to its wider green transition.
Under the commission’s criteria, the funding could “help to overcome economic and technological barriers” related to hydrogen as a clean energy source.
While Germany has established itself as Northwest Europe’s leading hydrogen developer, it is far behind meeting its strategy target of installing 10GW of green hydrogen capacity by 2030.
Funding will also support energy efficiency measures for buildings, subsidies for electric vehicles (EVs), and the installation of EV chargers.
Pending a final stage of approval from the commission’s Economic and Financial Committee (EFC), the payment would take Germany’s total NextGenerationEU’s recovery and resilience payments to €24.4bn ($28bn).
The EFC has until April 10 to provide final approval.
NextGenerationEU is Europe’s €750bn ($862.7bn) Covid-19 recovery instrument, aimed at funding green, digital, and resilience projects.
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