EU approves Slovenia’s €150 million grants for renewables and energy storage
EU approves Slovenia €150 million for renewables, energy storage The European Commission has given the go-ahead to a €150 million (US$160 million) state aid scheme for renewable energy and energy storage in Slovenia. The executive arm of the European Union (EU) approved the direct grant programme under the State Aid Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework, adopted in March this year to support sectors which are key to the energy transition. Enjoy 12 months of exclusive analysis — Regular insight and analysis of the industry’s biggest developments — In-depth interviews with the industry’s leading figures — Annual digital subscription to the PV Tech Power journal — Discounts on Solar Media’s portfolio of events, in-person and virtual Or continue reading this article for free The scheme will see grants of up to €25 million per beneficiary though the full details of the decision will only be made available “once any confidentiality issues have been resolved”. The announcement said the money will “accelerate the deployment of investments in renewable energy production and energy storage, with the aim to foster the transition to a net-zero economy”, including heat. The money will be granted no later than 31 December, 2025, it added. While this particular scheme in Slovenia is through the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework, other similar schemes supporting energy storage have been under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, which was created to mitigate the negative economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Romania, Finland and Greece‘s use of the latter to fund market-wide energy storage investments have been approved by the EU, as reported by Energy-Storage.news, while Croatia and Estonia are also funding projects (though potentially from other programmes). A few grid-scale battery storage projects are already underway in Slovenia, including two units totalling 60MW co-located with a run-of-river hydroelectric plant, as well as a new pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) system from utility DEM. The country is also trialling a cross-border grid synchronisation programme using 50MWh of battery storage with neighbouring Croatia, in a project which is also partially EU-funded.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”