European Commission opens €4bn renewables & storage fund

The European Commission’s Innovation Fund has opened its 2023 call for proposals with a budget of €4 billion to support the deployment of innovative decarbonisation technologies in areas such as renewable energy, energy storage, heat pumps and hydrogen production.

The call is funded by revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), “underlining the importance of carbon pricing for the green transition”, a European Commision statement said. The commission added that it had increased the overall funds available, and doubled the budget allocated for cleantech manufacturing projects compared to the previous call. A total of €1.4 billion is available to strengthen industrial manufacturing capacity, technology leadership, and supply chain resilience in Europe, the commission said.

Project promoters may apply for grants under five topics with distinct budget and capital expenditure (CAPEX) requirements:

– General decarbonisation (large-scale) – €1.7 billion available for projects with CAPEX above €100 million

– General decarbonisation (medium-scale) – €500 million available for projects with CAPEX between €20 million and €100 million

– General decarbonisation (small-scale) – €200 million available for projects with CAPEX between €2.5 million and €20 million

– Cleantech manufacturing – €1.4 billion available for projects with CAPEX above €2.5 million focusing on the manufacturing of components for renewable energy, energy storage, heat pumps and hydrogen production

– Pilot – €200 million available for projects with CAPEX above €2.5 million focusing on deep decarbonisation.

Projects will be assessed based on their potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, their degree of innovation, maturity, replicability and cost efficiency.

The Innovation Fund can cover up to 60 per cent of a project’s costs. Projects located in the European Economic Area are eligible to apply, and following the recent revision of the EU Emmissions Trading System Directive the Innovation Fund calls are now also open to the maritime, road transport and buildings sectors, in addition to technologies in energy-intensive industries (including aviation), renewable energy or energy storage.

For more information, click here