Bill Gates – Ursula von der Leyen – Photo © European Union 2021
(BRUSSELS) – Breakthrough Energy’s EUR 820 million Catalyst program launched a request for proposals Tuesday to support large-scale emerging climate technology projects located in the EU, Iceland and Norway.
The request will trigger investments in a portfolio of high-potential projects in the areas of clean hydrogen, sustainable aviation fuels, direct air capture, and long-duration energy storage.
It marks the first milestone of the EU-Catalyst partnership that the European Commission, the European Investment Bank and Breakthrough Energy Catalyst launched in November 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow, and which was presented by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Bill Gates, the Founder of Breakthrough Energy and European Investment Bank President Werner Hoyer.
The partnership will mobilise $1 billion between 2022-2026 to accelerate the deployment and commercialisation of innovative technologies that help deliver the European Green Deal ambitions and achieve Europe’s climate goals by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050.
Breakthrough Energy Catalyst is a first-of-its-kind model to finance, produce, and buy the new solutions that will underpin a zero-carbon economy. Catalyst brings together the public and private sectors to fund commercial-stage demonstration projects for critical decarbonization technologies.
Catalyst will address the early deployment funding gap for these technologies and provide a structure to accelerate their commercialization. Catalyst will start by funding projects across four technologies: direct air capture, green hydrogen, long-duration energy storage, and sustainable aviation fuel.
Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: “With the EU-Catalyst partnership we want to make a daring leap towards achieving our climate goals. We need technological revolution on a global scale, large investments, more financial risk taking and more game-changing innovations, as well as policies that support public-private partnerships across the globe.”
EU funding for the EU-Catalyst Partnership comes from Horizon Europe and the Innovation Fund, managed under InvestEU. Each euro of public funds is expected to leverage three euros of private funds.
EU-Catalyst Partnership - background guide
