The EU is investing over €62 million in 17 small-scale innovative clean-tech projects with a fourth round of awards under the EU Innovation Fund. Grants disbursed help bring breakthrough technologies to the market in energy-intensive industries, renewable energy, hydrogen, and energy storage. This will accelerate Europe’s clean energy transition and decarbonisation, across a large geographic spread and a wide variety of industrial sectors. Selected projects are located in eleven EU Member States, including Slovenia. Sectors covered include the production of renewable hydrogen, wind energy, and glass manufacturing.
The 17 projects will each receive grants between €2.5 and €7.5 million, funded by revenues from emissions trading. They were evaluated by independent experts based on their ability to reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to fossil-based technologies and to innovate well beyond the state-of-the-art, while being sufficiently mature for deployment. Other selection criteria included the projects’ potential to grow to scale as well as cost effectiveness.
In addition, a small number of projects that are promising but not yet sufficiently mature for a grant will be considered for project development assistance by the European Investment Bank. These will be announced in the second quarter of 2023.
Energy-intensive glass, ceramics, and construction materials (5 projects): A unique regenerative glass furnace will be demonstrated in Slovenia, which will reduce the consumption of natural gas by partially electrifying the melting process. The project in the Netherlands will develop a hybrid furnace for the production of glass wool. Two projects in Italy will reduce emissions from the production of high-quality glass through the hybrid use of electricity and gas in the melting furnace and through heat recovery in manufacturing. In Belgium, waste from steel production and carbon sequestration will be used to produce an innovative building material for cement-free buildings.
Source: European Commission
