MENA Newswire News Desk: The European Commission has announced €4.8 billion in grants from the Innovation Fund to support 85 innovative net-zero projects across Europe. These grants, awarded under the 2023 call for proposals, focus on deploying cutting-edge clean technologies in various sectors. For the first time, the projects span different scales – large, medium, small, and pilots – with a specific focus on cleantech manufacturing.
This marks the largest call since the Innovation Fund’s launch in 2020, boosting total support to €12 billion and increasing the number of projects by 70%. The selected projects are located in 18 European countries, including Belgium, Germany, France, Spain, and Sweden. They cover a wide range of sectors, from energy-intensive industries to renewable energy, energy storage, industrial carbon management, net-zero mobility, and building technologies.
All projects are expected to be operational by 2030 and collectively aim to reduce emissions by 476 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent over their first ten years, furthering Europe’s decarbonization goals. The projects will significantly contribute to key EU policy objectives, particularly in cleantech manufacturing. In line with the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), selected projects will support the development of plants producing critical components for wind and solar energy, heat pumps, electrolysers, fuel cells, and energy storage technologies.
They are expected to bolster the EU’s manufacturing capacity, adding 3 GW of solar photovoltaic production and 9.3 GW of electrolyser manufacturing. Energy-intensive industries will also benefit, with selected projects targeting emission reductions through the integration of renewable energy, electrification, recycling, and energy storage. Industrial carbon management projects will contribute to achieving the NZIA target of storing 50 million tonnes of CO2 annually by capturing emissions from hard-to-abate sectors such as cement, lime, and waste-to-energy.
Additionally, renewable hydrogen production will be a key focus, with selected projects delivering 61 kilotonnes of renewable fuel annually for use in industries and transport. The net-zero mobility sector will also see advancements, particularly in maritime transportation, with projects retrofitting vessels for renewable fuels and electricity use, as well as manufacturing components for road transport to further reduce emissions.
Successful applicants will sign grant agreements with the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) in early 2025. Additionally, the European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide project development assistance to promising projects that are not yet mature enough for Innovation Fund grants. For the first time, all 149 projects that met the Innovation Fund’s evaluation criteria, including 64 non-funded projects, will receive the STEP Seal, the EU’s new quality label aimed at facilitating access to further support. The next call for proposals under the Innovation Fund will be launched in December 2024.