EU's €100M clean tech funding call 10 times oversubscribed

The European Commission received 232 applications in response to its €100 million funding call for small-scale clean technology projects.

Of the total applications for the Innovation Fund, about 125 are for energy-intensive industries, including hydrogen projects; about 60 are for renewable electricity and heat; and about 50 are for energy storage.

The projects, located in all EU member states as well as Iceland and Norway, have requested a total of more than €1 billion, or 10 times the available budget.

Successful projects will receive grants, funded by revenues from the auction of emission allowances from the EU's Emissions Trading System.

The commission will release results of its initial evaluation in August and award grants at the end of 2021. The European Investment Bank may provide project development assistance to rejected proposals with potential to improve.

The European Commission plans to launch further calls for proposals, one for large-scale projects and one for small-scale projects, later this year.