The European Commission has stepped up its support for large-scale renewable energy and decarbonisation projects by doubling the budget of the EU Innovation Fund to €3bn ($2.94bn) on the back of increased revenues raised from the bloc's emissions trading system.

The Commission opened the third round of the fund to applications in early November, citing a “special focus” on the priorities of its RepowerEU plan, which aims to end the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels by accelerating the buildout of the bloc’s renewables sector.

“Today, more than ever, we need to boost innovation and scale up technological solutions that tackle the climate crisis and bring Europe energy sovereignty,” says Commission executive vice-president Frans Timmermans.

€700mn – Budget for clean technology manufacturing, including electrolysers

“The faster we do so, the quicker we will become immune to Russian energy blackmail. With this new call of €3bn, the EU Innovation Fund will support even more clean-tech projects than before, speeding up the replacement of fossil fuels in hard-to-decarbonise industries and accelerating the uptake of renewable hydrogen in the EU market.”

The third-round call for applications is open for projects located in EU member states, Iceland and Norway until 16 March 2023. It will offer funding to projects in four categories.

The first is general decarbonisation, which has a budget of €1bn and is for projects in renewable energy; energy-intensive industries; energy storage; or carbon capture, utilisation and storage; and products such as low-carbon transport fuels for maritime and aviation.

The second category is for innovative electrification in industry and hydrogen. This also has a budget of €1bn and is for projects in electrification to replace use of fossil fuels in industry as well as renewable hydrogen production or hydrogen uptake in industry

The third category, clean-tech manufacturing, has a budget of €700mn and is for projects in the manufacturing of components as well as final equipment for electrolysers and fuel cells, renewable energy, energy storage and heat pumps.

Fourth his mid-size pilots, with a budget of €300mn for highly innovative projects in disruptive or breakthrough technologies in “deep decarbonisation” in all eligible sectors.

Hydrogen industry group Hydrogen Europe says it especially welcomes the introduction of a dedicated facility targeting the deployment of new electrolyser and fuel-cell factories.

“This facility will be key to strengthening Europe’s technology leadership in those areas. Together with a dedicated call focusing on the deployment of clean hydrogen in industry, it will significantly contribute towards the achievement of RepowerEU ambitions,” the group says.