After the approved regional strategy for hydrogen, after two months of consultation, at the end of November, the Region starts, with the publication in the Burp scheduled for January 5, also the call for the selection of proposals to build plants for the green hydrogen production in abandoned industrial areas.
The non-repayable incentives intended for interested companies, which must send their proposals by 12 noon on 24 February 2023, cannot exceed 10 million euros and their total nominal power must be no less than 1 Mw and no more than 10 , obtained from renewable energy sources or from mains electricity.
The tender has a budget of 40 million euros from the Pnrr-Mission 2 “Green revolution and ecological transition”, Component 2 “Renewable energy, hydrogen, network and sustainable mobility”, Investment 3.1, and is the highest sum among those assigned to regions by Mite. The eligible interventions must be one or more electrolysers for the production of renewable hydrogen and related auxiliary systems necessary for the production process, including any hydrogen compression and storage systems.
Renewable hydrogen production plants must have a specific electricity consumption (referring to the entire plant, or to the electrolyser including the related auxiliaries) less than or equal to 58 MWh/tH2. Together with the electrolysers, the interventions must include one or more additional systems serving them. Enterprises of all sizes, even jointly (up to a maximum of five entities, including the lead partner), who have an existing disused industrial site in Puglia can submit a loan application.
The Region foresees tight deadlines for the procedure: once the deadline of 24 February has expired, a joint commission of internal and external experts will examine the proposals and announce the ranking on 31 March. The ceiling of 40 million may not be enough and if it happens in the Region, they do not exclude the possibility of resorting to other resources, for example from the Development and Cohesion fund or Por Energia.