Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment sets energy aid priorities for 2024
The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment has outlined the priorities for energy aid in 2024. Energy aid promotes the production of renewable energy, renewable hydrogen and fuels refined from it, energy saving or more efficient production or use of energy, utilisation of waste heat or the transition towards a low-carbon energy system in other ways.
The budget for 2024 has reserved EUR 14.1 million in national energy aid for these purposes. The budget authority is considerably smaller than before, which means that the support policies have been significantly tightened from the previous year. Aid will only be granted for investment projects of up to EUR 5 million.
Of the budget authority available, at least EUR 10 million will be allocated to investments promoting energy saving and energy efficiency. This allocation aims to promote energy-efficient solutions and measures under the energy efficiency agreements and to take account of the strict energy saving target set in the revised EU Energy Efficiency Directive for 2030.
In future, aid will not be granted to energy efficiency projects related to buildings and their common building services engineering. With regard to renewable energy, aid will only be granted to projects using new technology.
In the consideration of aid, priority will be given to investment projects that promote new technology and its commercialisation and the control capacity of the electricity system. New technology refers to new kinds of solutions that have not yet been widely piloted in Finland. Typically this means the first demonstration plant or plants. In comparison with similar projects based on conventional technologies, the introduction of new technologies involves additional costs or risks.
EUR 200 million available for energy investments from REPowerEU and 2023 budget authority
In addition to the budget authority for 2024, aid decisions totalling EUR 145.5 million may be made from the unused budget authority for 2023 this year. That budget authority is reserved for large-scale demonstration projects on new energy technologies, for which applications were accepted until 15 September 2023. In its aid decisions, the Ministry will consider new applications together with previously received applications for which no decision has yet been made. The selection criteria for the projects have been announced in the call for applications. The policies for 2024 do not apply to these projects.
In addition to national energy aid, a budget authority of EUR 54.5 million has been reserved under the energy aid budget item in 2024 for the REPowerEU aid, that is, for investments in new energy technology and production and storage of renewable hydrogen funded by the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF energy investment subsidy). The call for applications opened on 29 January 2024 and applications will be accepted until 29 February 2024.
Inquiries:
Pekka Grönlund, Senior Ministerial Adviser, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, tel. +358 29 506 4815, pekka.gronlund(at)gov.fi
