The European Commission has selected 77 net-zero technology projects across 23 countries to receive a combined €3.4 billion ($3.8 billion) in grant funding under the EU Innovation Fund.
Capitalized through EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) carbon revenues, the funding call targets industrial carbon management, cleantech manufacturing, critical raw materials processing, and renewable energy storage. The selected developments are projected to avoid approximately 290 million tons of CO2 equivalent emissions during their first decade of commercial operation.
The awards represent a regulatory milestone for the Innovation Fund, incorporating dedicated grant allocations for both a direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) project and a small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) for the first time.
The pioneer DACCS recipient, the Furu project in Norway, will utilize renewable electricity to capture ambient carbon dioxide and transport it for permanent subsea geological sequestration at the nearby Northern Lights facility in Øygarden. The asset is designed to remove roughly 4,000 tons of atmospheric CO2 annually.
The awarded SMR project, NetZeroHeat in France, involves a 30 MWh heat-only reactor engineered to deliver 131 GWh of low-carbon thermal energy per year into near-urban district heating networks.
Relevant: Sirona’s Furu Is Now The First DACCS Project Backed By The EU Innovation Fund
Beyond carbon management and nuclear heat, the grant selection awarded six critical raw materials projects, including France’s AGeLi geothermal direct lithium extraction (DLE) facility designed to produce 15,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate annually.
Additional regional allocations include offshore floating wind and microgrid storage in Greece, EV battery thermal management systems in Romania and Hungary, grid power conversion platforms in Croatia, and industrial recycling infrastructure in Bulgaria.
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