Dutch IPCEI hydrogen stalls, Everfuel signs grant, Korea reweights tender

Four hydrogen stories from October 28 to November 4, 2026: Dutch electrolysers subsidised in 2022 with none running, a Hydrogen Bank grant for a Danish project, a reweighted Korean tender, and a conditional electrolyzer contract in Mexico.

None of the Netherlands' 2022 IPCEI electrolysers is running

Four of the seven electrolyser projects that shared €783.5 million in the second wave of the EU's IPCEI Hydrogen programme have stopped, and none of the 1,150 MW they were awarded is operating, Climate and Green Growth minister Stientje van Veldhoven-van der Meer told parliament in written answers received on November 2, 2026. The stopped projects add up to 550 MW: HyCC's H2ermes (100 MW) and H2Fifty (250 MW), Ørsted's Haddock (100 MW) and Engie's HyNetherlands (100 MW). Engie had been granted €113.09 million and its subsidy was settled at €1,887,986; the other three were settled at zero.

The three survivors hold €439.1 million of grants, of which €290.0 million is still an open commitment. Shell's 200 MW Holland Hydrogen 1, granted €150 million, had a planned end date of June 30, 2025 and is now "largely complete," in the minister's words. Air Liquide's 200 MW ELYgator took its investment decision in July 2025 and has moved its end date from the end of 2026 to the end of 2027; its 200 MW Curthyl is still in preparation with no final investment decision and an end date of September 30, 2028. How much has been paid out depends on which table in the answers you read: €151 million in one, €149.2 million in the other.

The budget rested on a forecast. When the applications were assessed, the minister wrote, the consensus was that electrolysis would compete with fossil alternatives under the EU carbon market within ten years, with reports such as McKinsey's for the Hydrogen Council putting renewable hydrogen at around €2/kg in 2030. None of the 2025 OWE2 round is running yet either: of the 610 MW it awarded, 0 MW is operating and 204 MW has taken a final investment decision, according to the minister's table. The round opening in autumn 2026 is to give applicants at least five years to build, with possible exemptions for certain setbacks. The retreat extends past the Netherlands: Air Products booked about $3.2 billion of charges in fiscal 2026, mostly for exiting clean energy projects led by hydrogen plants in Louisiana and Arizona.

Everfuel signs its Hydrogen Bank grant for Frigg

Everfuel signed a grant agreement with the German government on October 30, 2026 under the European Hydrogen Bank's Auctions-as-a-Service scheme, worth €0.98 per kilogram of RFNBO hydrogen produced, or €245 million, for Project Frigg at Revsing Energy Park in Vejen, Denmark, the company announced on November 4. The support is for 200 MW of electrolysers in Frigg's first phase, according to Everfuel's May 29 release on the award, which put it at €244.9 million. Frigg is designed to scale to 2 GW.

The €245 million is a production payment, earned by the kilogram, so the plant has to exist first. Everfuel has also reserved capacity in the Danish and German hydrogen pipelines equivalent to 400 MW of electrolysers, targeting volumes for Frigg's initial phases; by our arithmetic, that is twice the subsidised 200 MW. In May the company called a booking in the Danish hydrogen backbone, then aimed for December, a key next milestone. Now chief executive Jacob Krogsgaard says close coordination is needed to align infrastructure, final capacity bookings and firm commercial agreements towards a final investment decision, and the offtake talks are advanced, not signed.

South Korea gives non-price criteria half the score in its clean hydrogen tender

South Korea's Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment opened its 2026 hydrogen power bidding market on October 30, 2026, offering 500 GWh a year of clean hydrogen generation under 15-year contracts, the ministry said. Bids are now judged in two stages: a new first round that scores only non-price criteria and produces a 1.5x shortlist, then a combined evaluation in which non-price criteria count for 50%, up from 40%.

Coal plants are out of the clean market. From the 2026 round, coal-ammonia co-firing is no longer eligible, in line with the government's plan to retire coal power by 2040, and every bidder's fuel must meet Korea's clean hydrogen certification limit of 4 kg of CO2-equivalent per kilogram of hydrogen. Generation must start by 2030, with up to three years' grace before delay penalties; under the ministry's provisional schedule, bids close on May 28, 2027, and preferred bidders are due around June 2027.

The other market is bigger. The general hydrogen market, which admits reformed and by-product hydrogen and is built around fuel cells, offers 930 GWh a year under 20-year contracts, with preferred bidders due around December 2026.

Transition Industries signs an EPC deal for Pacifico Mexinol's electrolyzers

Transition Industries has signed a definitive engineering, procurement and construction agreement with Siemens Energy and Techint E&C for the approximately 210 MW electrolyzer facility at its Pacifico Mexinol methanol project in Sinaloa, Mexico, the Houston-based developer announced on October 28, 2026. The agreement is subject to conditions precedent, including completion of project financing, and construction is expected to begin in early 2027 if they are met. The announcement puts no price on the contract. At about 210 MW, the Elyzer P-300 plant would be Siemens Energy's largest electrolyzer installation in the Americas, the company's Dan Restrepo said.

The renewable hydrogen is the small part of the plant. Once operational in 2030, Pacifico Mexinol is to produce about 175,000 metric tons a year of RFNBO methanol, which the electrolyzers' hydrogen supports, plus 175,000 tons of recycled carbon fuel methanol and 1.8 million tons of methanol made from natural gas with carbon capture. By our arithmetic, the RFNBO share is about 8% of output. A signed EPC is a step further along than the heads of terms for a 150 MW refinery plant that ITM Power announced for its Hydropulse unit on October 12, 2026.