A stakeholder workshop on 25 April 2024 provided useful perspectives and insight into the European Commission’s dedicated funding of EUR 3 billion for European battery manufacturers.
Background
The European Innovation Fund’s 2023 call for proposals for net-zero technologies was launched on 23 November 2023 and closed on 9 April 2024. It received 337 applications from 27 jurisdictions, which will compete for the call’s EUR 4 billion budget. With a total of EUR 40 billion available between 2020 and 2030, the Innovation Fund is the largest low-carbon technology fund in the EU, aimed at facilitating the commercialisation and scaling-up of innovative projects, including renewable energy and energy storage. The Innovation Fund’s substantial budget, managed by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), and supported by revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System, provides a significant opportunity for driving forward innovative clean technologies.
Shortly after the launch of the call, Maroš Šefčovič, European Commission Executive Vice-President, European Green Deal, Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight, unveiled a dedicated EUR 3 billion budget over the three-year period from 2024 to 2027 under the framework of the Innovation Fund, to strengthen EU sovereignty in the battery value chain. As batteries are instrumental in Europe’s transition towards a decarbonised economy, the EU needs to assert its competitiveness and resilience to face the increased pressure from competition, and to provide attractive financing solutions to the industry’s stakeholders.
Stakeholder workshop
To gather perspectives and insights from the various stakeholders, a stakeholder workshop was organised on 25 April 2024 by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action (DG CLIMA), CINEA, and the Innovation Fund team. The aim of the workshop was to foster collaborative discussions on potential options for enhancing financing support to EU battery manufacturing through the Innovation Fund, and aligning that funding with the industry’s needs and challenges. Deloitte Belgium’s Gi3 team participated in this workshop.
Key takeaways from the workshop include the following:
- Financing options include regular grants that could be combined with senior loans or venture debt, in collaboration with the European Investment Bank.
- An auction-type instrument could be implemented as a way to channel the funds; however, it faces several challenges. The setting of such a mechanism would involve resilience (responsible business, corporate sustainability reporting), sustainability minimum requirements (carbon footprint, recyclability/recycled content, non-carbon sustainability metrics), and a closer definition of battery type to avoid a “race to the bottom” effect on prices.
- The financing options should generate spillover effects on the entire value chain.
- There might be propositions to adapt specific sections of the Innovation Fund guidelines, such as the calculation methodology for greenhouse gas emissions and relevant cost calculations.
- A large number of projects are in the pipeline with a significant portion of them not having reached “start of works” and with planned investments of between EUR 100 and EUR 500 million.
DG CLIMA and CINEA are planning a follow-up workshop in the next few months.
How can Deloitte Belgium assist?
If you are looking for opportunities to fund your project, Deloitte’s experienced Gi³ team can provide:
- Compliance assessment of projects against current Innovation Fund requirements.
- Public funding strategy according to the project’s needs.
- Full support in project outlining, detailed viability analysis, and drafting the application.
- A dedicated network of battery industry specialists.
