Billions in subsidies for green technologies

03.12.2024

The EU Commission is providing a further 4.6 billion euros to accelerate the "green" transformation of European industry.

Immediately after taking office, the new Commission adopted three measures to promote "net zero technologies". Companies are invited to submit decarbonization projects of various scales as well as projects for the production of components for renewable energies, energy storage, heat pumps or the production of hydrogen.

In total, the Commission is providing up to 2.4 billion euros in funding from the EU Innovation Fund. The projects will be assessed according to their contribution to reducing greenhouse gases, how innovative and cost-effective they are and whether they can be replicated. For the first time, the member states will have the opportunity to supplement the support from the innovation fund with their own funding. This will shorten the necessary approval procedure.

A further billion euros will also be made available to promote battery production from the innovation fund, which is fed by the revenue from the ETS (Emission Trading System). This is intended to overcome the "economic obstacles" that "the battery value chain in Europe, including its gigafactories, is currently facing". The Commission will continue to use the instruments at its disposal to "remove the barriers to large-scale industrial deployment", according to a Commission communication.

New partnership to support the battery sector

In this context, a new partnership with the European Investment Bank (EIB) has been launched to support the battery sector. The EIB is providing guarantees of 200 million euros to support "innovative projects along the European battery manufacturing value chain".

The Commission is also launching the second auction as part of the European Hydrogen Bank. Projects for the production of renewable hydrogen can take part in the auction. The Commission is providing 1 billion euros from the Innovation Fund for this purpose. Projects with customers in the maritime sector can receive a further 200 million euros.

For the first time, projects participating in the auctions must meet certain "resilience criteria". These are intended to ensure that the funding benefits European companies and helps to make European industry less dependent on individual suppliers in third countries.

Projects wishing to participate in the second hydrogen bank auction must be submitted by February 20. The tender for battery and other "net zero technologies" will run until April 24, 2025.

Author: Tom Weingärtner, E&M powernews