Vetyalfa Oy’s Cloudberry project in Finland is set to receive EUR 224 million from the EU Innovation Fund, the largest single subsidy Finland has ever drawn from the fund. The award follows the fund’s 2025 hydrogen auction, whose results the European Commission published on 7 May 2026, selecting nine projects to proceed to grant negotiations.
Vetyalfa offered the lowest bid price of all participants while pledging the largest volume: nearly 509 kilotonnes of hydrogen over ten years from 500 MW of electrolyser capacity, cutting emissions by more than 3.38 million tonnes over the period. Climate and Environment Minister Sari Multala called it the kind of positive news Finland needs, framing it as evidence that the country’s bet on clean-energy expertise is paying off.
Across seven European Economic Area countries, the nine selected projects are expected to add almost 1.1 GW of electrolyser capacity and produce over 1.3 million tonnes of hydrogen in their first decade, cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by around 9 million tonnes. The round will distribute roughly EUR 1.09 billion, funded by revenue from the EU Emissions Trading System; the auction was oversubscribed more than sixfold against its EUR 1.3 billion budget, drawing 58 bids from 11 countries.
Grant agreements with the EU’s CINEA agency are expected in the final quarter of 2026, after which projects must reach an investment decision within two and a half years and begin operating within five. For the Baltic and Nordic region, where several hydrogen valleys and offshore-linked electrolysis schemes are under development, the award signals both the scale of EU support on offer and the competitive pressure on bid prices.
