The EU allocates 400 million euros to decarbonise the electro-intensive industry

The European Commission has selected 65 industrial projects that will use renewables, electric heat pumps, solar thermal, electrification systems and geothermal energy to decarbonise heat production in European industry. The initiatives will receive nearly €400 million in EU aid with the aim of reducing dependence on natural gas and accelerating the energy transition in energy-intensive industrial sectors. As explained by the Commission, the chosen projects will be developed in ten countries of the European Economic Area: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. The funding will come from the European Union’s Innovation Fund, which is fed by revenues from the European Emissions Trading System (ETS). Brussels estimates that the selected initiatives will avoid more than 6.6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions over the next ten years thanks to the replacement of fossil fuel-based thermal systems with low-emission technologies. In addition, the projects will produce around 16.3 Tera watt hours (TWh) of decarbonized heat in their first five years of operation, with a total thermal capacity of 766 megawatts.

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