Spain is going to contribute €415 million to the Auctions-as-a-Service – AaaS scheme from the European Hydrogen Bank in order to finance new domestic green hydrogen projects as well as an additional €50 million for the first industrial heat decarbonization auction by
The European Hydrogen Bank is scheduled to launch on December 10.
Sara Aagesen, the Vice President and Minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge – MITECO announced on December 05, 2025, a new national contribution when it comes to the Auctions-as-a-Service mechanism by the European Commission under the Innovation Fund that is managed by the European Hydrogen Bank. The country is going to allocate 415 million euros in order to finance the new domestic projects in terms of production as well as use when it comes to renewable hydrogen.
Spain is also going to participate in the AaaS structure of the first industrial heat auction offering of the EU, offering another 50 million euros so as to support the decarbonization initiatives that target the industrial thermal processes.
The minister took the opportunity to announce a 415 million euro contribution towards strengthening the third auction by the European Hydrogen Bank. Due to this new allocation, they have gone on to reach a total of 3.155 billion euros and make hydrogen a reality. Ten years back, hydrogen was seen as something that was pretty much confined to laboratories or R&D. Today, one is actually witnessing real projects that reach all parts of the country and contribute towards the decarbonization of the economy’s needs.
Interestingly, Spain’s participation within the renewable hydrogen AaaS scheme is most likely to help the country reach its objective of allocating 100% of the funds that are assigned to the Institute for Energy Diversification and Saving – IDAE as per the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan – PRTR. This is the second contribution by Spain, after the 376.9 million euros that were allocated in 2024.
When it comes to the industrial heat auction, which is the first of its kind that has been launched by the European Commission, Spain looks forward to supporting projects that involve industrial heat electrification, such as heat pumps, resistive or plasma heating, direct renewable heat like solar thermal or geothermal solutions, and also hybrid systems, which combine renewable heat along with electrification. These technologies are being promoted already as per the national PERTE ERHA and PERTE for the Industrial Decarbonization programs.
The new contribution by Auctions-as-a-Service from Hydrogen Bank’s mechanism is going to indeed be distributed all across two of the three baskets or even topics that are included in the terms and conditions of the third auction by the bank.
278.6 million euros when it comes to Topic 1: Production of renewable hydrogen coming from non-biological sources – RFNBO, Renewable Fuels of Non-Biological Origin,
136.4 million euros for Topic 3 : Production of RFNBO hydrogen, which is dedicated to supplying the maritime as well as aviation sectors.
For each of the submitted projects, the maximum grant is going to be limited by the national budget, which is available under each topic. Interestingly, if the funds allocated to one topic are not completely awarded, national rules enable redistribution between both.
When it comes to industrial heat auctions, Spain is going to allocate –
30 million euros for low-temperature – 100–400°C, low-capacity – 3–5 MWth topic.
20 million euros for the low-temperature – 100–400°C, medium-capacity >5 MWth topic.
As of the date that has been specified in the call, any project that’s been placed on the national waiting list from Spain and considered a potential beneficiary as per the Auctions-as-a-Service scheme has to submit all needed documentation along with performance guarantees.
National deadlines in terms of submitting these guarantees and, more broadly, when it comes to the administrative process are going to be shorter as compared to those of the first AaaS call. Final award decisions have to get published before 31 August 2026, since these grants are funded by way of the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility – RRF as per the PRTR.
Financed via the Innovation Fund and national contributions, the European Hydrogen Bank is indeed one of the instruments that are designed by the European Commission so as to make Europe’s leadership strong in the global green hydrogen race and also elevate competitiveness within the decarbonization of economic activity.
The Auctions-as-a-Service scheme enables the EU member states to make use of these European auctions as the project selection mechanisms. Once the EU-level auction gets done with, countries contributing further funds like Spain may recover the pre-selected national projects that were not being awarded because of exhausted EU funds and also finance them through using their voluntary contribution. This helps the Member States to go ahead and support competitive domestic projects without even launching any separate national auctions.
This mechanism does broaden opportunities for Spanish companies to go ahead and secure financing for new projects when it comes to production as well as the use of renewable hydrogen, therefore strengthening the position of the industrial ecosystem of Spain, which, by the way, is already highly competitive when it comes to this sector.
The participation by Spain in the auction framework by Hydrogen Bank does complement the range of national support instruments that have been activated by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and also the Demographic Challenge in order to position green hydrogen as a major pillar of the energy strategy of the country. Inclusive of this new contribution, Spain has already gone on to allocate more than 3.1 billion euros from the PRTR in order to scale up the renewable hydrogen as well as its associated value chain.