Over €1.8 billion announced for 17 Projects under European Commission Innovation Fund
The large-scale projects will help to bring highly innovative low-carbon technologies in EU Member States to market.
The European Commission has announced details of 17 large-scale projects to receive funding under the Innovation Fund, the Commission’s dedicated instrument to help bring highly innovative low-carbon technologies in EU Member States to the market.
The Innovation Fund is not a research programme; instead it is designed to bring highly innovative low-carbon technologies and big flagship projects in all Member States to the market. It supports both small-scale projects with a value between €2.5 million and €7.5 million, as well as large-scale projects worth €7.5 million or more.
The 17 selected large-scale projects will benefit from a total grant of over €1.8 billion and cover a wide range of sectors contributing to the EU’s decarbonisation efforts. These include 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 the potential to save 136 million tonnes of CO2eq over their first 10 years of operation. The selected projects are located in Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden.
In addition, up to 20 projects that are promising but not yet sufficiently mature for a grant will be pre-selected for project development assistance by the European Investment Bank. These will be announced in the fourth quarter of 2022.
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.”
The next call for large-scale projects is scheduled to open in late autumn 2022. The funding available will be doubled to around €3 billion to further support the EU’s independence from foreign fossil fuels. Projects that were not successful in the previous calls are encouraged to re-apply.
(This report was the subject of a ResearchConnect Newsflash.)