Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions, Industrial, Solar, Wind  -  October 24, 2024

EU Invests in 85 Decarbonization Projects

The European Commission chose 85 innovative net-zero projects to receive €4.8 billion in grants from the Innovation Fund, helping to put cutting-edge clean technologies into action across Europe. 

The selected projects are set to enter into operation before 2030, and over their first 10  years of operation, are anticipated to lower emissions by about 476 million tons of CO2 equivalent. This will contribute to European decarbonization objectives, reducing emissions from sectors that are particularly difficult to decarbonize, strengthen European industrial manufacturing capacity and reinforce Europe's technology leadership and supply chain resilience. 

The selected projects range in scale, have a cleantech manufacturing focus and boost the total amount of support since 2020 to €12 billion — increasing the number of projects by 70%.

The selected projects are located in 18 countries: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Hungary, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and Norway. They cover a wide range of sectors from the following categories: energy-intensive industries, renewable energy, energy storage, industrial carbon management, net-zero mobility (including maritime and aviation) and buildings.   

The selected projects contribute to reaching the following EU policy objectives:

Cleantech manufacturing: In line with the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), clean-tech projects selected will develop, build and operate manufacturing plants for key components in wind and solar energy and for heat pumps, as well as components for electrolysers, fuel cells, energy storage technologies and the batteries value chain. Selected projects will contribute to 3 GW of solar photovoltaic manufacturing capacity in the EU and 9.3 GW of electrolyzer manufacturing capacity in the EU, further strengthening EU's clean energy infrastructure.

Energy-intensive industries: Selected projects will support various technologies to cut net GHG emissions in energy-intensive industries, target renewable energy integration, heat and energy storage solutions, recycling and reuse, as well as electrification. 

Industrial carbon management: Projects selected in this call will capture CO2 and contribute 13% of the NZIA target of storing at least 50 million tons of CO2 per year from various hard-to-abate sources in energy-intensive industries, such as cement and lime, (bio)-refineries, chemicals and waste-to-energy.  

Renewable hydrogen: Selected projects will deliver 61 kilo tons of renewable fuel of non-biological origin (RFNBO) annually, contributing to increase the use and production of renewable energy in hydrogen in hard-to-abate applications in industry and transport.  

Net-zero mobility: Projects will help cut emissions in the mobility sector, with the maritime sector benefiting the most. These projects involve building and retrofitting vessels for RFNBO fuels and electricity use, as well as reducing emissions in road transport component manufacturing. Awarded projects will also support sustainable transport fuels, producing 525 kilo tons of renewable fuels per year.   

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