The European Commission said Thursday that it plans to fund innovative energy projects that received the status of Projects of Common Interest and Projects of Mutual Interest across Europe, with a massive investment in an innovative hybrid interconnector between Denmark and Germany receiving the largest grant from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
The Bornholm Energy Island project between Denmark and Germany will receive €645 million to help the construction of a hybrid interconnector that will integrate 3 GW of offshore windfarm capacity in the Baltic Sea.
The funding for that project is the highest, with €1.2 billion in disbursement to 41 projects across the European Union, divided into electricity grid projects, hydrogen infrastructure, and CO2 infrastructure. According to Commissioner for Energy and Housing Dan Jørgensen, the funding is “the highest ever awarded under the Connecting Europe Facility for energy infrastructure projects making a key contribution to build our Energy Union. It is also the first time hydrogen and offshore electricity grid projects have been selected.” The funding will go to five working proposals and 36 studies.
The Commission selected €750 million for electricity grid projects, including offshore and smart electricity grids, including Bornholm Energy. The second project of this group is almost €33 million for the Danube Ingrid cross-border smart electricity project between Hungary and Slovakia. Other six projects around the EU will receive the remaining funding for support studies.
Around €250 will instead fund three projects and finance nine preparatory studies for CO2 infrastructure. Here, the lion’s share of the funding, around €120 million, will go to the Prinos storage facility in Greece to help develop carbon capture and storage facilities in the Southern Mediterranean. A grant of €55 million will be given to construction work of the North Sea L10 CO2 facility in the Netherlands, while €12 million will be reserved for the Danish Norne CO2 facility. The rest of the €120 will go to preparatory studies.
Finally, a total of €250 million will fund 21 development studies on hydrogen infrastructure across 16 member states, including the cross-border BarMar-H2med project for an interconnector between France and Spain and hydrogen corridors between the Baltic countries.
