Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment Opens 2026 Hydrogen Power Bidding Market
Korea's Ministry of Climate, Energy and Environment opened the 2026 Hydrogen Power Bidding Market on October 30, 2026, offering 500 GWh/year for clean hydrogen and 930 GWh/year for general hydrogen, aiming to foster the domestic hydrogen industry.
Our take
Does Korea's 2026 hydrogen bidding market favour cleaner projects over the lowest price?
Korea's 2026 clean hydrogen auction favours project quality over the lowest price, because non-price scoring rises to 50% and a new first stage selects bidders on non-price factors alone.
Excluding coal-ammonia co-firing from this year narrows who can bid in the 500 GWh a year clean round. The 930 GWh a year general round stays a distributed generation route with grid impact in its non-price score.
What the source says
- The Clean Hydrogen Power Bidding Market requires fuel to meet a certification standard of 4 kgCO2e or less per 1 kg of hydrogen.
- Clean hydrogen power generation must commence by 2030, following a 3-year project preparation period.
- General hydrogen power generation must commence by 2029, following a 2-year project preparation period.
- Coal-ammonia co-firing generation is excluded from Clean Hydrogen Power Bidding Market support, aligning with the government's 2040 coal phase-out policy.
- The evaluation for clean hydrogen power now includes a new first stage based solely on non-price factors, selecting 1.5 times the final bidders.
- The General Hydrogen Power Bidding Market has strengthened environmental evaluation criteria, including a new index for CO2 capture, utilization, and storage plans.
- Preferred bidders for the Clean Hydrogen Power Bidding Market are planned for selection around June 2027.
- Preferred bidders for the General Hydrogen Power Bidding Market are planned for selection around December 2026.
- Clean hydrogen projects are granted a maximum 3-year grace period for penalties due to business delays, considering construction timelines.
For investors — Clean hydrogen investors should settle the certified fuel route and non-price case before price, since weak proposals can now fall at the first stage.
General hydrogen investors should prepare the CO2 capture plan and grid impact case now, since preferred bidders are due around December 2026.
Watch: Publication of detailed bidding guidelines on the Korea Power Exchange's low-carbon central contract integrated platform.
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