Austria

Country: Austria

Document type: National Strategy

Title: Hydrogen Strategy for Austria (German language, includes English language Executive Summary)

Released: June 2022

Summary Points:

Key points underlying the Strategy include (as included in media reports):

  • Extensive substitution of fossil-based energy with climate-neutral hydrogen in energy intensive industries
  • Establishment of hydrogen production as an integral part of the energy system
  • Targeting domestic electrolyser capacity of 1 Gigawatt (GW) by 2030, corresponding to production of around 4-Terawatt hours (TWh) of (renewables-based) hydrogen
  • Funding support of €40 million per annum through the Renewable Energy Expansion Act
  • Hydrogen produced will be prioritised for use in hard-to-decarbonise industries (and in certain areas of mobility)
  • Target replacement of 80% of the consumption of fossil-generated hydrogen in industry with climate-neutral hydrogen by 2030
  • International collaborations/partnerships for carbon-neutral hydrogen will be important and diverse supply strategies would be pursued.

The Strategy includes several policy measures to support implementation:

  • Enabling a timely market ramp-up through flagship projects
  • Support and incentives for the production of renewable hydrogen
  • Incentivising market-based business models and the targeted application of climate-neutral hydrogen in industry
  • Establishing an infrastructure for hydrogen and creating import opportunities
  • Targeted advancement of hydrogen technologies in the area of mobility
  • Intensifying research and development activities
  • Addressing Austria’s priorities at both the European and international levels

English language reporting on the Hydrogen Strategy for Austria includes:

Boost To RE With Austria’s Hydrogen Strategy | TaiyangNews

Austria has a strategy for green hydrogen – Green Hydrogen News (energynews.biz)

Austria’s new hydrogen strategy slams use in heating, transport – EURACTIV.com

European Commission and Austrian Government reporting indicated that in July and September 2022, respectively, the European Commission approved state aid support for the Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) Hydrogen (“Hy2Tech” and “Hy2Use”) which included six companies from Austria. The Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology (BMK), together with the Federal Ministry of Labour and Economic Affairs (BMAW) are jointly providing aid of €125 million for the six participating Austrian companies, with funding being provided from the European Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) until 2026 for all projects in the IPCEI Hydrogen.

The Hydrogen Partnership Austria (HyPA) is an initiative of the Austrian Government as well as the Province of Tyrol and is implemented by the Austrian Energy Agency and the Standortagentur Tirol. It contains information for stakeholders on hydrogen developments in Austria.

In February 2024, reports indicated that Austria plans to support domestic renewable hydrogen producers with a €400 million subsidy package backed by the European Hydrogen Bank (EHB). It is reported that the Ministry of Climate Protection and Ministry of Finance intend to launch a renewable hydrogen auction round under the EHB’s Auction-as-as-Service scheme, to provide a fixed premium per kilogram of hydrogen to subsidise production. The package would allow Austria to finance projects that have not been selected by the EU-wide Innovation Fund-backed EHB auction, which closed in February 2024.

In May 2024, Germany, Italy and Austria signed a Declaration of Intent for the development of the SoutH2 Corridor. The SoutH2 Corridor is to facilitate hydrogen imports from North Africa through southern Italy and is then to be connected to hydrogen demand clusters in Italy, Austria and Germany. The Declaration announcement notes that the SoutH2 Corridor is one of the five large-scale pipelines for hydrogen imports that will facilitate the European import of renewable hydrogen by 2030. (Note: The SoutH2 Corridor has been chosen as a Project of Common Interest.)

In November 2024, in a joint release, the EC, Spain, Lithuania and Austria announced that the three Member States will participate in the ‘Auctions-as-a-Service’ scheme as part of the second European Hydrogen Bank auction. In addition to the €1.2 billion in EU funding from the Innovation Fund, the three EU Member States will deploy over €700 million in national funds to support renewable hydrogen production projects located in their countries, bringing the funding mobilised by the ‘IF24′ renewable hydrogen auction to around €2 billion. Austria is committing €400 million from its national budget to the Auctions-as-a-Service scheme; hydrogen producers will be eligible for a maximum grant of €200 million per project, with a maximum capacity of 300 megawatts of production to be supported in this auction. Austrian funding (reflected in a draft law that at time of reporting was labelled as the Hydrogen Promotion Act) was raised in media reporting early in 2024.

 

Reviewed: November 2024