Promotion
Funding support and networking opportunities for the implementation of hydrogen projects
There is a wide range of funding available for hydrogen projects. Below you will find an overview of the current programmes and offers at Lower Saxony, federal and EU level. Are you missing a funding programme? Feel free to send us an email to netzwerk[at]wasserstoff-niedersachsen.de.
Funding ABC
How do I apply for funding? What is a project outline? What is De-mininis? And who gets the SME bonus?
We explain the most important terms in the Funding ABC.
Lower Saxony
Buildings, facilities and processes
Climate protection and energy efficiency
Who funds: Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection
Who is supported: SMEs in the commercial sector (farms are excluded), municipal enterprises, etc.
What is funded: Investments in non-residential buildings, machinery and equipment, and heating networks, operational energy efficiency and climate protection networks for SMEs.
How is funded: Grant, 40 to 70%
More information including the presentation of the funding can be found at the Klimaschutz- und Energieagentur Niedersachsen and the application documents at the NBank.
Research and development
Innovation Support Program for Research and Development in Companies (IFP)
Who funds: Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics, Transport, Building and Digitalization
Who is funded: Start-ups, SMEs and cooperating research institutions.
What is funded: Industrial research and experimental development of new or significantly improved, marketable products, production processes or services; collaboration with other companies or research institutions.
How is it funded: Grant from 25 to 45%, max. 500,000 EUR for SMEs.
- additional 15 % for joint and cooperation projects
- for research institutions for cooperation projects 100%, max. 300,000 EUR
Mobility
Supply of transport with alternative fuels
Who funds: Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics, Transport, Building and Digitalization
Who gets funded: Companies, among others
What is being funded: Climate-friendly propulsion technologies on road, rail and inland waterways.
How is funding provided: Grant of max. 50% (or 60% in the Lüneburg region) of eligible expenses.
Acquisition of fuel cell-powered municipal special vehicles
Who funds: Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection
Who receives funding: Municipalities in Lower Saxony and their companies pursuant to Section 136 (2) Nos. 2 and 3 NKomVG
What is funded: Procurement of fuel cell-powered new specialty vehicles; conversion of new specialty vehicles to fuel cell propulsion.
How is subsidized: Subsidy of max. 50%, but not more than EUR 350,000 per vehicle.
Acquisition of electric and fuel cell vehicles and associated charging infrastructure
Who funds: Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection
Who receives funding: Lower Saxony municipalities, Regional Association of Greater Braunschweig
What is funded: Procurement of new vehicles and optionally the associated charging infrastructure.
How is it funded: Grant of max. 60,000 EUR (plus optional charging infrastructure), depending on the number of inhabitants in the municipality.
Open-topic
Investment support for individual enterprises
Who funds: Lower Saxony Ministry of Economics, Transport, Building and Digitalization
Who is supported: commercial SMEs, businesses in the tourist industry with predominantly supra-regional sales.
What is supported: Construction investments, expansion investments, diversification of production into products not previously manufactured there, fundamental change of the entire production process, and others.
How is funded: Grant
Germany
Buildings, facilities and processes
Federal funding for energy and resource efficiency in the economy (EEW) - Module 5: Transformation concepts
Who funds: Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK)
Who is supported: Company
What is funded: Preparation of a transformation concept (incl.CO2 balancing). In addition, companies can also apply for an extension of the time frame (approval period) for the implementation of EEW measures in connection with the preparation of a transformation concept
How is it funded: Subsidy of 50% (60% for SMEs), max. 80,000 EUR per concept.
Decarbonisation in industry
Who funds: Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK)
Who is supported: commercial companies and consortia, if
- they participate in the European Emissions Trading Scheme (except energy suppliers) and cause process-related greenhouse gas emissions,
- the applying company has a permanent establishment/branch in Germany and implements the project in Germany
What is funded: Projects in energy-intensive industries with process-related greenhouse gas emissions, with the potential to reduce emissions as much as possible and permanently.
How is it funded: Subsidy of max. 70
Renewable Energies - Standard
Who promotes: KfW Banking Group
Who gets funded: Companies, among others
What is funded: Projects that use renewable energy to generate electricity and heat (e.g., PV systems, battery storage, hydro and wind power generation systems, heating/cooling networks and storage).
How is funded: Loans of up to EUR 50 million per project.
BMUV Environmental Innovation Program
Who promotes: KfW Banking Group
Who is supported: Company, municipality, public institution, private individual, association/union(SMEs are given priority)
What is supported: large-scale plants with demonstration character, i.e. the planned technology is not yet used in Germany or known technologies are combined in a novel way.
How is subsidized: Investment grant or an interest subsidy to reduce the cost of a KfW loan.
Research and development
KMU-innovativ: Resource efficiency and climate protection
Who funds: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Who is eligible for funding: SMEs; in the context of collaborative projects, universities, non-university research institutions, local authorities and companies that do not meet the SME criteria are also eligible to apply.
What is funded: R&D projects in the fields of energy and raw material efficiency, climate protection, sustainable water management, etc.
How is funded: Grant
Notice: Project outlines can be submitted at any time. Evaluation deadlines for project outlines are April 15 and October 15.
SME-innovative: Materials research (ProMat_KMU)
Who funds: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Who is supported: SMEs, medium-sized companies and, within the framework of collaborative projects, universities and non-university research institutions.
What is funded: R&D projects with materials science issues and high application potential in the thematic areas: Materials for energy technology materials, materials for mobility and transport or sustainable handling of raw materials and materials.
How is funded: Grant
NoteProject outlines can be submitted at any time. Evaluation deadlines are April 15 and October 15 of each year.
Central Innovation Program (ZIM)
Who funds: Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK)
Who is supported: SMEs, other medium-sized companies and non-economically active research institutions as cooperation partners of companies.
What is funded: R&D cooperation projects of companies or of companies and research institutions for the development of innovative products, processes or technical services without restriction to specific technologies and industries (open to technology).
How is it funded: Grant, max. EUR 2.3 million for an overall project.
7th Energy Research Programme
Who funds: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Who is funded: Universities and non-university research institutions with research and development capacities in Germany as well as commercial enterprises and other legal entities under public or private law.
What is funded: Research and development of innovative energy technologies in the basic area, which can make a significant contribution to the success of the energy transition, from priority fields of action.
How is funded: Grant
Research at universities of applied sciences - cooperation with companies (FH-Kooperativ)
Who funds: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Who is funded: Universities of applied sciences/universities of applied science
What is funded: Research and development projects in the fields of application-oriented engineering, health, economics and social sciences in cooperation with partners from science and industry.
How is funded: Subsidy of up to 92.5
Mobility
Federal support for the construction of refueling vessels for LNG and sustainable renewable fuel alternatives in shipping.
Who funds: Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport
Who is supported: Companies (legal entities under public and private law) with a permanent establishment or branch office in Germany.
What is funded: Investments in the new construction of refueling vessels for LNG and sustainable renewable fuel alternatives that are commissioned from a shipyard with a permanent establishment or branch in Germany, whereby the award must be made in compliance with competitive, transparent, non-discriminatory and non-conditional conditions (cf. Art. 56b (7) AGVO).
How is funding provided: Subsidy of up to 40 % of eligible expenses
Development of electricity-based fuels and advanced biofuels for maritime applications.
Who funds: Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport
Who receives funding: Commercial enterprises, municipal enterprises, universities and non-university research institutions. In justified cases, projects of non-profit organizations, regional authorities, as well as institutions under public law and registered associations can also be funded.
What is funded:
- Individual and collaborative projects in which concepts and processes for process chains for sustainable renewable marine fuel production are further developed.
- The development of technologies and processes for the production and conditioning of advanced biofuels, including green hydrogen.
- Hybrid processes based on green hydrogen and biogenic fractions.
- All fuel generation stages in concept and process development.
- Pilot and demonstration plants for fuel production along the entire production value chain.
How is funded: Grant
Note: Deadline for submission of outlines under the funding call is April 30, 2023.
Switch to buses with alternative drive systems and the infrastructure required for operation
Who funds: Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV)
Who gets funded: Transport companies that convert their bus fleets in a timely manner.
What is funded: Feasibility studies on the conversion to battery-electric and fuel cell-based drives.
How is it funded: Subsidy of up to 70%, max. 200,000 EUR (net).
Note: Applications must be submitted by 28.02.2023
Sustainable mobility investment credit
Who funds: KfW Banking Group
Who gets funded: Companies, among others
What is funded: Investments in sustainable and climate-friendly mobility implemented in accordance with the EU taxonomy.
How is it funded: Loans of up to EUR 50 million per project (standard variant - 268) or from EUR 25 million per project (individual variant - 269).
IKK - Sustainable mobility
Who funds: KfW Banking Group
Who receives funding: Municipal authorities, their legally independent own undertakings and municipal special-purpose associations.
What is funded: Investments in sustainable and climate-friendly mobility implemented in accordance with the EU taxonomy.
How is funded: Loans of up to EUR 150 million loan amount per year.
National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology Innovation Program (NIP II): Projects for market activation of hydrogen and fuel cells.
Who funds: Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV)
Current funding call: Call for applications for the funding of electrolysis plants for hydrogen production for the transport sector.
Who is supported: legal entities under public and private law as well as natural persons, provided they are economically active
What is funded: Electrolysis plants for the production of hydrogen for the transport sector (according to number 2.4 of the funding guidelines). Eligible for funding is the construction of electrolysis plants with a minimum electrical output of 1 MW for the entire plant.
How is funded: Grant
Notice: Interested parties have the opportunity to learn more about the new funding call in an online seminar of the project management organization PtJ and the program company NOW GmbH on February 24, 2023. To the registration
Market activation of alternative technologies for the environmentally friendly on-board and mobile shore power supply of seagoing and inland vessels
Who funds: Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV)
Who is eligible for funding: Natural or legal persons under private or public law who become owners of the alternative systems for environmentally friendly on-board or mobile shore power supply to be funded and who have at least one operating facility or branch in Germany when the funding is disbursed.
What is funded: On-board equipping and retrofitting of seagoing and inland vessels with environmentally friendly on-board power supply systems or in the procurement of mobile (containerised, rolling or floating) shore power supply systems.
How is it funded: Subsidy of max. 80 %, depending on the type of measure.
Guideline to promote the sale of electrically powered vehicles (environmental bonus)
Who funds: Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK)
Who gets funded: Companies, among others
Note: As of September 1, 2023, only private individuals are eligible to apply.
What is funded: the purchase of e-vehicles and fuel cell vehicles.
How is funded: Grant
Hydrogen production and infrastructure
Promotion of measures in the field of export of green and sustainable (environmental) infrastructure
Who funds: Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV)
Who is funded: Research institution, university, SME, association/union
What is funded: Project activities e.g. in the areas of capacity building, country and feasibility studies, international networking measures and (small) model and pilot projects.
How is funded: Grant
Open-topic
Climate protection offensive for small and medium-sized enterprises
Who funds: KfW Banking Group
Who is supported: Company
What is supported: Investments in measures to reduce, avoid and eliminate greenhouse gas emissions based on technical criteria of the EU taxonomy for sustainable business.
How is funded: Loans of up to EUR 25 million per project.
KfW loan for growth
Who funds: KfW Banking Group
Who is supported: Companies with sales of up to 2 billion euros
What is funded: Investments and working capital for larger projects in the areas of innovation and digitization.
How is funded: Loan
KfW Environmental Program (240, 241)
Who funds: KfW Banking Group
Who is eligible: small enterprises (product number 241), large and medium-sized enterprises (product number 240).
What is funded: Investments in environmental protection and sustainability (e.g. measures to supply ships with electricity (such as shore power systems).
or sustainable alternative fuels (such as green hydrogen), waste prevention, wastewater treatment, etc.).
How is funded: Loans of up to EUR 25 million loan amount per project.
Export Initiative Environmental Protection (H2/BZ)
Who promotes
Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV)
Who is promoted:
specifically to German technology companies in the field of hydrogen and fuel cell technology that want to establish themselves on an international level and create sales markets worldwide, as well as research institutions based in Germany that implement the scientific design and monitoring of a project
What is promoted:
Projects in the field of "green hydrogen and fuel cell technologies" for off-grid and decentralized power supply
How is promoted:
Grant
European Union
Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON)
Who funds: European Union (EU)
Who gets funded: Companies, research institutions, universities
What is funded: Research and innovation in 7 areas, covering a total of 26 topics and making a direct as well as measurable contribution to the goals of the Clean Hydrogen Joint Undertaking.
The 7 areas are:
- Renewable Hydrogen Production
- Hydrogen Storage and Distribution
- Transportation
- Heat and Power
- Cross-cutting
- Hydrogen Valleys
- Strategic Research challenge
How is funded: Grant
Notice: Deadline for submission is at 5 p.m. on April 18, 2023.
Status: February 2023
Missing a promotion? Feel free to send us an e-mail to network[at]wasserstoff-niedersachsen.de.