On 23 March, the Covenant of Mayors – Europe organised a webinar in collaboration with CINEA to present the new calls for Cross-border renewable energy projects (CB RES), fostered by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).
Cross-Border Renewable Energy Projects
Vasil STOYNOV (DG ENER), when presenting the EC’s priorities, stated that CB RES projects are a way to “tap further the renewable energy potential by putting the efforts of Member States together”, and the webinar presented the programme and also the opportunities for cross-border cities.
Beatrice CODA (Head of Unit, CINEA), Gianluca FERRERI (Head of Sector, CINEA) and Paul GRANDEAU (Project Officer, CINEA), further detailed the opportunities for CB RES projects within the CEF, one of the funding programs of CINEA.
The budget for the energy pillar of the CEF programme is 5.84 bln euros until 2027, of which 875 mln euros are allocated for CB RES projects.
A Cross-Border Renewable Energy Project can be so not only if the project crosses physically the border, as long as a cooperation agreement between Member States is in force and the project is based on cooperation mechanisms. There are no location or technology requirements specified, as long as production of renewable energy is included. For instance, projects covering only transmission or storage without generation, or projects contributing to reducing emissions without actual renewable energy production, cannot receive the status of CB RES.
Deadline for the CB RES status call is 3 May 2023 at 5pm CET. The following call will be in November 2023.
To find more information on the projects selected in the previous call, please visit the CB RES Transparency Platform here.
Support to "preparatory studies" and "work and studies"
Other relevant calls are the ones for “preparatory studies”, to receive financial support at the pre-feasibility phase of projects without an approved CB RES status (next call in September 2023), and for “works and studies”, for projects that have already obtained the CB RES status (next call in November 2023).
You can find more information about the CB RES projects within the CEF programme here.
The last part of the webinar presented an example of CB RES project between cities.
Sacha Caron presented a Cross-Border renewable energy project between the “Europe-City” Goerlitz (DE) and Zgorzelec (PL), to share renewable electricity production infrastructures to supply their citizens through renewable district heating, shifting away from the current unconnected district heating facilities fueled respectively by gas and brown coal.
Cities that would like to compete for a CB RES status funding should bear in mind some benefits and challenges of the programme, Sacha Caron stressed:
The first benefit is that CB RES funding is compatible with National funding. Secondly, the structure of the programme, with technical assistance, calls for pre-feasibility studies, calls for receiving the CB RES status and for receiving additional funding for studies or preparatory work, gives flexibility to project developers, which will also work in close synergy with CINEA and DG ENER to receive information about the programme.
Embarking in a Cross-border renewable energy project has also its challenges. Firstly, stakeholder management must not be underestimated, as citizens of different cultures would be involved. Additional complexities to this scenario are the necessity to involve national stakeholders to obtain a “cooperation agreement”, needed for the status of CB RES, and the knowledge of at least two national regulations.
But overall, the process is worth it, and as Sacha concludes, “I hope that I will be here in the next few years to tell you that we managed to make this project”.
You can find the recording of the webinar here.
Details
- Publication date
- 7 April 2023