Wednesday 23 January 2019

EU invests €800m in priority energy infrastructure projects

The European Commission has announced an additional €800 million (£698m) of investment for key energy infrastructure projects.

The money will be distributed across 14 projects – seven for electricity, two for smart grids, two for CO2 cross-border transportation and three for gas.

Around €323 million (£282m) is being invested in the Baltic power synchronisation project, which aims to increase the security of supply and reliability of the power systems in the region through the connection to the Continental European Network (CEN).

Support has also been approved for the ACON SG project to modernise and improve the power grid between Czechia and the Slovak Republic – the €91 million (£79m) grant will contribute to the setting up of smart grids in the border region.

A study on the development of a CO2 infrastructure in the Port of Rotterdam has also been awarded €6.5 million (£5.7m) to establish an open access, cross-border, carbon dioxide network in North West Europe.

In the gas sector, one of the projects granted funding is the Baltic Pipe project, a new, offshore gas interconnection between Poland and Denmark.

Miguel Arias Cañete, Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy said: “As a crucial element of our overall energy and climate strategy, we need to ensure that our energy infrastructure is sustainable, goal-oriented and operational. With almost two thirds of today’s investment decision devoted to electricity, we are delivering on our promise to align EU funding with our political ambition to deliver the clean energy transition.”