In Sweden, energy utility Stockholm Exergi AB is a step closer to its ambition to have a full-scale facility for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) in operation in 2025. The EU Innovation Fund has announced that the company is among the projects that have been selected to submit a complete application for partial financing in stage 2, which can be an important contribution to establishing the technology in Stockholm.
The EU Innovation Fund (EIF) is a European Commission (EC) initiative to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from various sectors in Europe.
The fund has some EUR 1 billion earmarked for investments in innovations in carbon capture, renewable energy, energy storage, and energy-intensive industries. The goal is to make EUR 10 billion available during the years 2020-2030, with ongoing opportunities to apply for support.
Keen interest
According to EIF, a total of 311 applications were received in its First Innovation Fund call for large-scale projects that closed on October 29, 2020. Of these, 14 were pure carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects but there were also some additional projects with CCS components amongst the applications.
The 311 proposed projects have requested a total of EUR 21.7 billion and promise to reduce around 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 during their 10 years operating period within the Innovation Fund.
This is roughly the equivalent of a third of EU emissions for 2018 according to European Environment Agency (EEA) data.
We are thrilled to have received so many applications for the first Innovation Fund call. These applications are for cleantech projects in all EU Member States, Iceland, and Norway thus paving the way for the transition to climate neutrality across Europe. This is impressive as it shows the conviction of our businesses that in these uncertain times green investments are the way forward, commented Mauro Petriccione, Director-General for DG Climate Action on the results in a statement on November 5, 2020.
Following a review of the admissibility and eligibility of all submissions, eligible submissions were evaluated against the award criteria by external evaluators.
Selected to submit an application
Of these, a total of 70 proposals have been invited to submit a full application for the second stage by June 23, 2021. Stockholm Exergi’s proposal is one of the 70 selected and invited to apply.
We run a very good project and our application also maintains a really high quality, so we have good conditions to take us all the way through EIF’s assessment process. If we pass their eye of the needle, we get a significant contribution to the installation and operation of bio-CCS at Värtaverket during the first 10 years, said Fabian Levihn, R&D Director at Stockholm Exergi.
The proposed bio-CCS plant at Värtaverket will capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from biomass fuels that are already climate-neutral, and will therefore be able to create a so-called carbon sink and remove up to 800 000 tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere per annum.
Support from the EIF can amount to a maximum of 60 percent of relevant costs over 10 years. For Stockholm Exergi, additional financing will be required for a facility to finally come into being.
This can be done through government instruments in Sweden or that the carbon sink can be commercialized. Stockholm Exergi continues to work in parallel on several tracks around financing.
