Following its third large-scale call for projects, the European Commission announced, on Thursday 13 July, an investment of more than €3.6 billion in 41 programmes dedicated to clean technologies.
These projects will be financed by the EU Innovation Fund – with the revenue coming from the EU Emissions Trading System (see EUROPE 13164/13) – and will play a crucial role in implementing the REPowerEU plan to phase out Russian fossil fuel imports into Europe.
The selected projects cover a wide range of industries, from cement and steel to advanced biofuels, sustainable aviation fuel, wind and solar energy, and renewable hydrogen and its derivatives.
They are located in 15 EU Member States as well as Norway, and will all enter into operation before 2030. It is estimated that these projects could avoid 221 million tonnes of CO2 emissions during their first ten years of operation.
Four categories are involved: general decarbonisation, industry electrification and hydrogen, clean tech manufacturing and medium-sized pilot projects.
In the general decarbonisation category, eight projects worth €1.4 billion were selected, including refinery projects and projects in the cement and lime sector.
The industry electrification and hydrogen category includes 13 projects worth nearly €1.2 billion, six of which involve the production of renewable hydrogen and seven the use of hydrogen in various industrial sectors.
There are also eleven projects in the clean tech manufacturing category, worth almost €800 million and involving electrolysers, batteries and photovoltaic panels.
Finally, nine medium-sized pilot projects worth €250 million have been selected, covering areas such as wind energy, ocean energy, chemicals and glass.
The projects were assessed by independent experts on the basis of criteria such as greenhouse gas emission reduction, level of innovation, operational and financial maturity, scalability and profitability. In addition to the first 41 selected, other promising projects will benefit from project development assistance from the European Investment Bank.
The Commission will also be launching a new call for proposals by the end of the year, with an increased budget of €4 billion.
To see the selected projects: https://aeur.eu/f/82y (Original version in French by Nithya Paquiry)