Along with large-scale projects, the EU Innovation Fund does also support small-scale projects. In the second call for small-scale projects, HyPush project of N GREEN MOBILITY, a French company from Paris, was selected for grant agreement preparation.

Recently the EU Innovation Fund (IF) released a list of 17 small-scale project proposals pre-selected for a grant agreement with a total budget of EUR 62 million. These projects are starting grant agreement preparations with the European Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Executive Agency (CINEA) to be able to sign the grant agreements in the second quarter of 2023.

One of these 17 projects is coming from the inland navigation sector. HyPush project aims to construct a fuel cell pusher boat operating with two hydrogen fuel cells and a lithium battery designed for inland river navigation.

HyPush will demonstrate a highly innovative hydrogen-powered pusher boat for bulk transports in the Paris metropolitan region. It will introduce hydrogen technology on inland waterways, a boat pushing heavy barges in the Paris metropolitan area.

HyPush will couple the innovative technology with a ground-breaking business model. NEoT Green Mobility (NGM) will own the pusher and remain responsible for the new technology such as fuel cells and power electronics. The end-user will enter into a dry lease agreement without technological risk. This allows overcoming the existing financial barriers slowing down the large-scale rollout of this new technology.

The project will eventually replace some 500 boats in France alone. The project will avoid 12293 tCO2eq in the first 10 years. NGM is setting up a special purpose vehicle for the fast ramp-up of production coupled with the innovative business model.

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The third call for large-scale projects from the Innovation Fund is open for applications till 16 March 2023

The call with a €3 billion budget will fund projects covering the following topics:

  • General decarbonisation (budget: €1 billion)
  • Innovative electrification in industry and hydrogen (budget: €1 billion)
  • Clean tech manufacturing (budget: €0.7 billion)
  •  Mid-sized pilots (budget: €0.3 billion)

Source: EC

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The EU Innovation Fund will provide around EUR 38 billion of support from 2020 to 2030 (at EUR 75 / tCO2), depending on the carbon price, for the commercial demonstration of innovative low-carbon technologies, aiming to bring to the market industrial solutions to decarbonise Europe and support its transition to climate neutrality.

The goal is to help businesses invest in clean energy and industry to boost economic growth, create local future-proof jobs and reinforce European technological leadership on a global scale.

This is done through calls for large and small-scale projects focusing on:

  • innovative low-carbon technologies and processes in energy-intensive industries, including products substituting carbon-intensive ones
  • carbon capture and utilisation (CCU)
  • construction and operation of carbon capture and storage (CCS)
  • innovative renewable energy generation
  • energy storage
The EU Innovation Fund

The Innovation Fund has already held two large-scale calls awarding €1.1 billion and €1.8 billion in grants to 7 and 17 projects respectively.

Source: EC