CINEA Finalizes Grants for Five Cross-Border Energy Projects

The European Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Executive Agency (CINEA) on Monday executed grant agreements for five of 41 cross-border energy infrastructure projects selected for the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Energy.

The European Commission, through CINEA, is set to award a total of EUR 1.25 billion ($1.43 billion) to the 41 projects, mostly to support their study phases. These projects constitute the first round of CEF for Energy funding under the revised Trans-European Networks for Energy (TEN-E) Regulation of the European Union.

The top recipient among the five projects that received their grant certificates Monday is the Italian portion of the H2 Backbone project. CEF will provide EUR 24 million to state-backed Snam SpA for engineering and environmental studies, according to a press release by CINEA.

H2 Backbone is part of the SoutH2 Corridor hydrogen pipeline system being developed by transmission system operators in Austria, Italy and Germany. SoutH2 Corridor, itself part of a broader project called the Europea Hydrogen Backbone, is planned to have 3,300 kilometers of pipelines, over 65 percent of which would be repurposed from existing lines, across the three countries. The Italian section accounts for 2,300 kilometers and will include several hundred megawatts of compression stations. Targeted to be put onstream 2030, SoutH2 Corridor aims to carry renewable hydrogen produced in North Africa to Europe.

Meanwhile the Offshore Wind Connection South Brittany project of Réseau de Transport d’Électricité (RTE) received a grant certificate for EUR 21.8 million. “This investment will support technical studies and permitting for the offshore grid connecting future floating wind farms to South Brittany, helping to accelerate renewable energy deployment in the French North Atlantic Sea Basin”, CINEA said.

A project to build an electricity exchange link between Landes in France and Navarra in Spain sealed EUR 11.1 million in CEF funding. RTE and Red Eléctrica de España will spend the grant on technical and financial studies.

A project to modernize the Cierny Váh hydro pumped storage plant of Slovenské Elektrárne a.s. was awarded EUR 2.1 million. The grant will support technical and financial feasibility studies on the planned upgrade of the country’s biggest hydro pumped storage facility to support increasing shares of renewables in the grid.

Rounding up the five is a FEED (front-end engineering design) preparation project to assess the potential of the TAG natural gas pipeline network in Austria for hydrogen transport. The project secured EUR 1.38 million in CEF support. The repurposed pipeline would enable hydrogen transport between the Italian-Austrian border and the Austrian-Slovakian border.

CINEA awarded the grant certificates during the 11th Energy Infrastructure Forum in Copenhagen.

The projects “will directly contribute to enhancing Europe’s competitiveness, integrating energy markets and decarbonizing our energy systems”, CINEA Director Paloma Aba Garrote commented.

The funding is from CEF for Energy, which supports the implementation of the TEN-E Regulation. The regulation aims to link national and regional power, low-carbon gas, hydrogen and carbon dioxide infrastructure.

The selected projects consist of 36 studies and five work proposals. They had obtained the status of Project of Common Interest or Project of Mutual Interest in 2024 under the TEN-E Regulation.

The call for proposals was made last year, launching the inaugural grant deployment of the revised TEN-E Regulation, put into effect June 2022 to align with the EU’s goal of becoming a net-zero emissions economy by 2050.

The selections constitute “the largest call for proposals under the current CEF Energy program, both in terms of applications received and funding awarded and goes beyond the call’s initial indicative budget of EUR 850 million”, the Commission said in an online statement January 30.

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