On 22 May, the European Commission selected 65 projects to receive financial support under the first Innovation Fund Heat Auction. The selected projects will receive nearly €400 million in EU funding from the Innovation Fund, drawn from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS).
The selected projects will use a wide range of technologies to reduce industrial heat emissions and accelerate the market uptake of electrified heat solutions and heat produced directly from renewable sources (namely solar thermal and geothermal). By decarbonising industrial heat production in Europe, the projects will contribute to the EU’s clean transition, energy independence and security and industrial competitiveness.
Over the next five years, those projects will aim produce an amount of decarbonised heat in the EU equivalent to replacing over 1.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas, roughly comparable to the annual consumption of 4 million EU households.
The European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) will now begin the formal preparation of grant agreements with the selected projects.
More information is available in the press release.
