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

Important Projects of Common European Interest

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.

Auctions-as-a-Service

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 would 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.  

In March 2025, the EC approved, under EU State aid rules, a €400 million Austrian State aid scheme to support the production of renewable hydrogen through the European Hydrogen Bank’s “Auctions-as-a-Service” tool for the auction closing in 2025. The approved scheme would support the production of up to 112,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen in Austria.

SoutH2 Corridor

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 January 2025, Italy, Germany, Austria, Algeria and Tunisia signed a joint declaration of intent to continue work on the development of the SoutH2 Corridor.

The development of the Southern Corridor is a key focus of the September 2025 announcement on a range of hydrogen-related initiatives (see below)

Hydrogen Initiatives – September 2025

In September 2025, the Austrian Government launched several initiatives to position Austria as a European hub for green hydrogen, including:

  • The development of a hydrogen import strategy
  • Two ordinances that are to be issued in 2025:
    • Hydrogen Investment Grants Ordinance: investment grants for electrolysis plants (€20 million).
    • Hydrogen Certification Ordinance (WstVO): Implementation of EU requirements, providing legal certainty and eligibility for funding.
  • A focus on the Hydrogen Southern Corridor as an infrastructure project of the highest geostrategic importance.

Projects

In September 2025, OMV announced the laying of a foundation stone for its planned 140 MW electrolysis plant in Bruck an der Leitha which is scheduled to go into operation at the end of 2027 and produce up to 23,000 tons of hydrogen per annum (and support the decarbonisation of industrial processes at the OMV refinery in Schwechat). The release notes the project was assessed positively for funding by the European Hydrogen Bank and that (as of end September 2025) a funding agreement was being finalised in cooperation with the Austrian promotional bank Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (acting as the national processing office for the European Hydrogen Bank’s funding program).

HyPA

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.

 

Reviewed: September 2025