With the climate protection agreements, the German government is pursuing the goal of supporting energy-intensive industry in switching to climate-friendly technologies. A key challenge was to determine the eligible additional costs for hydrogen compared to conventional energy sources in a transparent and comprehensible manner. The BMWK therefore needed a reliable benchmark index for hydrogen costs in order to control the level of subsidies efficiently and in line with the market.

E-Bridge Consulting developed the HydexPLUS©, an optimized full cost index for hydrogen. Building on the already established Hydex© cost index, investment and an optimized operating mode were also integrated. The index takes into account daily market prices for electricity, gas and CO₂ certificates as well as dynamic cost developments. In addition, various technologies for green, blue and grey hydrogen production were taken into account and transferred to a transparent calculation model. The index is published on the E-Bridge and energate websites.

HydexPLUS© provides the German government and industry with a reliable and dynamic benchmark index that enables a precise and fair calculation of subsidies within the framework of climate protection agreements. The index creates transparency about the actual cost structures of hydrogen and improves the predictability of investments in hydrogen-based processes. This makes a significant contribution to accelerating the hydrogen economy and achieving national climate targets.