Energy transition

One billion euros for breakthrough energy technologies

2021-02-10

The European Innovation Fund contributes to greenhouse gas reduction in the EU by helping create the right financial incentives for new investments in the next generation of technologies needed for the EU’s low-carbon transition. IMCG have supported in the development of proposals.

The first call for large-scale projects (projects with a capital expenditure above EUR 7.5 million) opened in July last year 2020 with a budget of EUR 1 billion for breakthrough technologies for renewable energy, energy-intensive industries, energy storage, and carbon capture, use and storage.

The call closed in October and out of 311 proposals, some 20 percentages was on CCS Carbon Capture technologies or CCUS technologies (Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage) which encompasses methods and technologies to remove CO2 from the flue gas and from the atmosphere, followed by recycling the CO2 for utilization and determining safe and permanent storage options.

Most proposals focus on one part of the CCUS value chain, and only some proposals will integrate all aspects of the value chain from CO2 capture to utilization or storage. Some proposals capture CO2 for storage but do not include the CO2 storage site in the proposal.

A few proposals have the potential for net-carbon removals (negative emissions, net-carbon removals).

In the projects CO2 is captured from various sources: bio-refineries, ferrous and non-ferrous metal production, cement and lime, refineries, chemicals, bio- and geothermal combined heat and power (CHP) plants, Waste to Energy or ambient air.

The CCUS proposals aim to result in the production of different products: electricity & heat, hydrogen, methanol, aviation fuels, methane, construction materials, other chemicals and other fuels.

Applicants will be informed about the results of the evaluation in the first quarter of 2021. The best ranked 70 projects will be invited to submit a full application for the second stage by 23 June 2021.

Rejected proposals that have the potential to improve their maturity may be invited for the project development assistance provided by the EIB. The information on the evaluation results from the second stage will be provided in the fourth quarter of 2021. Grants will be awarded at the end of 2021.

Read more about it here