Brussels, 12 July 2022
Today, the EU is investing over €1.8 billion in 17 large-scale innovative clean-tech projects with a third round of awards under the Innovation Fund. Grants will be disbursed from the Fund to help bring breakthrough technologies to the market in energy-intensive industries, hydrogen, renewable energy, carbon capture and storage infrastructure, and manufacturing of key components for energy storage and renewables. The selected projects are located in nine countries: Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden. They will cover a wide range of sectors contributing to the EU’s decarbonisation efforts such as production, distribution and use of green hydrogen, waste-to-hydrogen, offshore wind, manufacturing of photovoltaic (PV) modules, battery storage and recycling, carbon capture and storage, sustainable aviation fuels, and advanced biofuels.
Together, they have a potential to save 136 million tonnes of CO2eq over their first 10 years of operation. Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans said:
Today’s grants support innovative businesses across Europe to develop the cutting-edge technologies we need to drive the green transition. The Innovation Fund is an important tool to scale up innovations in renewable hydrogen and other solutions for European industry. Compared to the first disbursement round, the funds available have increased by 60%, enabling us to double the number of projects supported. This is a big boost for the decarbonisation of energy-intensive industry in the European Union.
In the autumn, the Commission will launch the third call for large-scale projects. As announced in the REPowerEU Plan, the funding available will be doubled to around €3 billion to further support the EU’s independence from Russian fossil fuels. In July 2021, the Commission proposed as part of the Fit for 55 package, to top up the Innovation Fund, currently sourced from 450 million allowances from the existing ETS in 2021-30, with 50 million allowances from the existing ETS and 150 million allowances from the new system covering emissions from road transport and buildings. A full press release is available here.
Source – EU Commission