Yesterday, the Commission presented REPowerEU, an action plan to rapidly reduce EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels and fast forward the green transition.
As one of the world’s largest funding programmes for the deployment of innovative low-carbon technologies, the EU ETS Innovation Fund will play a key role in this plan. It will be strengthened to further support and accelerate the decarbonisation of industry. The Commission will double the funding for the next large-scale call, planned to open this autumn, to around €3 billion.
To this end, we launched a survey to get an indication of the available project pipeline. The results will help to evaluate the industry’s interest and readiness to apply for funding in specific thematic areas under the Innovation Fund, specifically in clean technology manufacturing and pilots for deep decarbonisation technologies.
Who should participate?
The survey targets the industry, focusing in two areas:
- Clean technology manufacturing: projects aiming to develop innovative clean tech equipment (or components thereof) for manufacturing plants such as renewable energy technologies, fuel cells, electrolysers, electricity storage, and heat pumps.
- Mid-size pilot projects for deep decarbonisation technologies: projects aiming to validate, test and optimise technology performance in relevant or operational environments at a scale smaller than necessary for commercial production (TRL 6 and 7). The goal would be to cross the valley of death between concept proofing and commercial scale plants. Eligible technologies include all sectors of the Innovation Fund, i.e. energy-intensive industries; carbon capture, utilisation and storage applications (CCUS); innovative renewable energy technologies, and energy storage.
The survey is quick to fill in and will be open until 18 June. All information collected will be confidential and replies will not have any impact for possible future applications to the Innovation Fund.
Background
Financed by revenues from the auction of emission allowances from the EU’s Emissions Trading System, the Innovation Fund has a revenue of around €38 billion until 2030, depending on the carbon price.
The Innovation Fund aims to create the right financial incentives for companies and public authorities to invest now in the next generation of low-carbon technologies and support Europe’s transition to climate neutrality.
The second small-scale call with a budget of €100 million is currently open until 31 August for projects with total capital costs between €2.5 and 7.5 million in eligible sectors.
