RENEWFM: The EU Renewable Energy Financing Mechanism launches its first call for proposals

The first call for proposals of the EU Renewable Energy Financing Mechanism has been launched on 18 April 2023.

On the basis of Member States’ expression of interest and binding commitments, CINEA has opened the first-ever cross-border tender for renewables on 18 April. The call will close on 27 of September. For this call, Luxembourg will participate as a contributing country, voluntarily contributing EUR 40 million to the mechanism. Finland will be the hosting country.

The call will support new solar PV projects located in Finland with a minimum capacity of 5 MW and a maximum of 100 MW. The total capacity of the call is expected to be 400 MW.

Check the call for proposals in the Funding & Tenders Portal

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Info day about the call on 25 April

In addition, CINEA is organising an Info Day about the call on 25 April, taking place in a hybrid mode in Helsinki and online, to obtain more information about the call conditions, priority order of the tender and award criteria, as well as rules for grant disbursements.

At the info day, you will have the possibility to raise questions during a Q&A session and find out the conditions to participate to the call.

A webcasting of the event will also be available.

Background

To better support renewable energy projects, and thereby encourage a greater uptake of renewable energy sources across the EU, the European Commission has established a new EU financing mechanism: the EU Renewable Energy Financing Mechanism (RENEWFM). The Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1294 of 15 September 2020 on the Union renewable energy financing mechanism sets out the detailed functioning and underpinnings of the RENEWFM.

The RENEWFM pools financial contributions from participating EU countries and then allocates funding through a system of competitive tenders. It involves countries that make direct payment into the mechanism (contributing countries) and countries that allow physical installations of the new projects on their territory (host countries).

The financial contributions that enter the financing mechanism scheme will be distributed by the European Commission through competitive tenders for grants. The grants cover either the installation of a renewable energy production facility with certain capacity (investment support), or the actual production of renewable energy (operating support). The size of the grant is determined by the outcome of the tender procedure, where only the most competitive projects will be selected and receive support, corresponding to their bid in the tender. The general principle of the RENEWFM is to rank applications according to the lowest price offer per MW.

Source: European Commission | News (https://bit.ly/41K6vKK)