EC inks EUR 1.1bn in grant deals for seven climate transition projects

The European Commission (EC) today signed the agreements for seven large-scale projects deploying low-carbon technologies to split between them a total of EUR 1.1 billion (USD 1.2bn) in grant funding from the EU Innovation Fund, financed by revenues from the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS).

These are the first large-scale projects under the Innovation Fund and were selected in November 2021. They include initiatives in sectors such as hydrogen, steel, chemicals, cement, solar energy, biofuels and carbon capture and storage (CCS).

The Sustainable Hydrogen and Recovery of Carbon project (SHARC) will allow Neste Oyj’s (HEL:NESTE) Porvoo refinery in Finland to move away from the production of fossil-fuel-based hydrogen towards both green and blue hydrogen. It is getting an EUR-88-million grant.

With a EUR-106-million grant, the Ecoplanta project in El Morell, Spain, will result in a first-of-a-kind commercial plant for the production of methanol in Europe that will use waste otherwise going to landfills.

The Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology Demonstration project (Hybrit Demonstration) project in Sweden, awarded EUR 143 million, aims to replace fossil-based technologies with alternatives such as green hydrogen. It will help SSAB AB (STO:SSAB-A) to introduce fossil-free steel to the market in 2026.

The awarded projects also include the TANGO initiative of Enel Green Power to greatly upscale a solar factory in Italy to an annual capacity of 3 GW.

The K6 Programme will transform a French cement plant in Lumbres to produce the first carbon-neutral cement in Europe through a combination of an airtight kiln and cryogenic carbon capture technology.

A further two projects will create a bio-energy carbon capture and storage (BECCS) facility at an existing heat and power biomass plant in Stockholm, and a CCS value chain in the Port of Antwerp, Belgium.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.110)

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