EU invests € 1 billion in decarbonization projects

The EU supports seven large-scale industrial decarbonization projects through its innovation fund, committing more than € 1.1 billion ($ 1.3 billion) to support advanced technologies in energy-intensive industries, hydrogen, carbon capture, storage and storage and renewable energy, European commission This is stated in the message on November 16.

The grants will support projects in Belgium, Italy, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, which were selected for their potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the report said.

“Innovation is critical to delivering the solutions we need this decade to keep temperatures of 1.5 ° C within reach,” EC Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans said in a statement.

“Together with dramatic cuts in emissions, innovation is paving the way for the Paris Agreement,” Timmermans said. "Today's solution provides concrete support to clean technology projects across Europe and enables them to scale up disruptive technologies that support and accelerate the transition to climate neutrality."

Selected projects include the chemical, steel, cement, oil refining, energy and thermal sectors. According to the EC, all of them are either part of industrial centers, or will give impetus to the development of clusters of industrial decarbonization.

The selected projects are "mature enough to roll out quickly," have the potential to scale and are cost effective, the statement said.

Successful projects include a project in Sweden aimed at eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from steel production through the use of renewable hydrogen in Gällivare and Oxelosund. A demonstration project in Finland will produce pure hydrogen at the Porvoo refinery using CCS.

The French CCS project for a cement plant has also received EU support, along with the CCS value chain in the port of Antwerp in Belgium, including the production of hydrogen and chemicals.

In the renewable energy sector, the EU is supporting a pilot industrial project to produce solar photovoltaic cells, while a Spanish project will convert waste to methanol. The EU is also supporting a full-scale CCS plant for bioenergy in Sweden.

According to the EC, for successful projects, individual grant agreements will now be prepared with the European Executing Agency for Climate, Infrastructure and Environment, the implementing agency of the fund, to be completed in the first quarter of 2022.

The first challenge for the Innovation Fund is to support large-scale projects with capital expenditures of over 7.5 million euros.

“Our Fit for 55 package proposes an increase in the Innovation Fund so that even more innovative European projects and ideas can take the lead in the global race for climate innovation,” said Timmermans.

On October 26, the European Commission announced a second call for large-scale projects with a deadline of March 3, 2022. He encourages all projects that did not succeed in the first round to re-apply.

The EU will separately finance smaller projects with capital costs below € 7.5 million through the Innovation Fund.