EU to invest €1.8 billion in 17 renewable energy projects
The European Union (EU) has announced an investment of more than €1.8 billion ($1.8 billion) in 17 large-scale clean energy projects including hydrogen, biofuels and carbon capture infrastructure.
PHOTO: EU announces investment of €1.8 billion in 17 large-scale clean energy projects. Getty Images
These projects show great potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and can save 136 million mt of carbon dioxide equivalent in their first decade of operation, the EU said.
The projects are located in Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Sweden.
The selection includes three projects for production, distribution and use of green hydrogen, and two for biofuels.
In the Netherlands, one project will produce green hydrogen through an electrolyser powered by electricity from offshore wind. Shell’s upcoming Holland Hydrogen 1 plant in Rotterdam is set to be Europe’s biggest with a 200-megawatt electrolyser when it is up and running.
In the biofuel segment, the EU has selected one project in Norway to build the world's first commercial-scale production facility for biofuel as drop-in fuel. This facility will recycle forestry waste into biofuels and biochar.
Other projects span sectors such as offshore wind, manufacturing of photovoltaic (PV) modules, and carbon capture and storage.
These projects will be funded from the Innovation Fund, which has been created to incentivise investments in low-carbon technologies. The fund will draw more than €38 billion ($38 billion) in funding from EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) allowances until 2030.
Another 20 projects were deemed promising in this application round, but not sufficiently mature to be worked on immediately. They have been pre-selected for development assistance from the European Investment Bank.
The EU will select another batch of large-scale renewable energy projects this autumn, which will partly be funded by a €3 billion ($3 billion) allocation to support EU countries with their shift away from Russian fossil fuels.
