The European Commission has selected 85 innovative projects aimed at achieving net-zero emissions, which will receive 4.8 billion euros in grants from the Innovation Fund. This is the largest call since the fund’s inception in 2020, raising the total support value to 12 billion euros and increasing the number of supported projects by 70 percent.
With projected revenues of 40 billion euros from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) between 2020 and 2030, the Innovation Fund is designed to provide financial incentives for companies and public authorities to invest in advanced low- and net-zero-carbon technologies, supporting Europe’s transition to climate neutrality.
The selected projects span 18 countries, including Belgium, Germany, Croatia, and Finland, and cover diverse sectors: energy-intensive industries, renewable energy, energy storage, carbon management, sustainable mobility, and construction. The goal is for these projects to become operational by 2030, potentially reducing CO2 emissions by around 476 million tons over the first ten years.
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The chosen projects align with the Net-Zero Industry Act and focus on the development of clean technologies in areas such as wind and solar energy, heat pumps, electrolyzers, fuel cells, energy storage, and batteries. They aim to increase Europe’s solar energy capacity by three gigawatts and electrolyzer capacity by 9.3 GW.
In energy-intensive industries, supported technologies will reduce emissions through the use of renewable energy, recycling, heat storage, and electrification. Carbon management projects are expected to enable the storage of 50 million tons of CO2 annually from hard-to-decarbonize sectors such as cement and chemical production.
In the field of renewable hydrogen, the goal is to produce 61 kilotons of renewable fuel annually for industrial and transport applications. Net-zero mobility projects will reduce emissions in maritime and road transport, with plans to produce 525 kilotons of sustainable fuels per year.
Experts evaluated the projects based on emission reductions, innovation, maturity, replicability, and cost-efficiency. Funding agreements will be signed in the first quarter of 2025, and the next call for projects is expected in December 2024.
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