The European Commission has launched the Innovation Fund programme to fund large and small-scale projects that demonstrate low-carbon technologies. Now, it announces the second call for small-scale projects under the same fund. The grant funding of €100 million is open for cleantech projects from Norway and Iceland alongside EU member states. Small-scale projects with a capital expenditure between €2.5 and 7.5 million can register for the fund until August 31 if they are related to renewable energy, energy-intensive industries, energy storage, and carbon capture, use and storage.
Commission makes available €100 million for innovative clean technology projects
The European Commission is launching the second call for small-scale projects under the Innovation Fund, one of the world’s largest funding programmes for the deployment of innovative low-carbon technologies, financed by revenues from the auction of emission allowances from the EU’s Emissions Trading System.
The new call will provide grant funding of €100 million to small-scale projects, i.e. projects with a capital expenditure between €2.5 and 7.5 million, in renewable energy, energy-intensive industries, energy storage, and carbon capture, use and storage.
The funding will help highly innovative technologies, which are sufficiently mature and have a strong potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional technologies, overcome the risks linked to commercialisation and reach the market. For the first time since the creation of the Fund, the innovativeness of a project will be assessed in comparison to existing technologies in the country where the project will be implemented, and not in the European-wide landscape.
The Innovation Fund can support up to 60% of a small project’s capital expenditure. Projects will be evaluated against their potential to avoid greenhouse gas emissions, their innovation, their financial and technical maturity, their potential for scaling up and their cost efficiency. The call is open for projects from all EU Member States, Iceland and Norway until 31 August.
Up to 20 projects that are evaluated as promising but not sufficiently mature for a grant may receive project development assistance by the European Investment Bank.
Next steps
Applicants can submit their proposals via the EU Funding and Tenders portal where more details on the overall procedure are available. The deadline for submission of applications is 31 August 2022. Applicants will be informed about the results of the evaluation in the first quarter of 2023. The grants will be awarded to successful projects indicatively in May 2023.
Background
With 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 first call for small-scale projects awarded grants of over €100 million to 30 projects across all eligible sectors, while 10 projects were selected for project development assistance by the European Investment Bank.
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