Three European countries expressed support for a Swedish company’s large-scale offshore wind power project that is trying to tap the European Commission’s 4.5-billion euro ($6.48 billion) clean energy fund.
Hexicon Corp. has earlier sought support from Sweden, Malta, and Cyprus for the financing of its offshore wind technology, which puts together turbines and other applications for wind and wave power on a floating platform.
The technology is vying, along with 15 other wind projects, for the money generated from the sale of 300 million carbon allowances by the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme. The sale of these carbon allowances is expected to raise 4.5 billion euros to 9 billion euros that will be made available for up to three projects per member state.
The Swedish Energy Agency, the Malta Resources Authority, and the Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment of Cyprus evaluated the technology. They approved the project based on criteria of feasibility and low risk level.
The approval of the three countries will be significant for the qualification of the technology during the final process of choosing the winning projects.
The commission decided to fund at least eight carbon capture and storage facilities and 34 renewable energy projects, which are then categorized into wind, bioenergy, concentrated solar power, photovoltaic, geothermal, ocean and distributed renewable management.
We are now looking forward to advance into the construction phase and together with our partners take the next step towards the launch of a first Hexicon platform,” said Hexicon’s chief executive officer Anders Tunbjer.
Other proposals
There are 78 proposals for carbon capture and storage facilities and renewable energy projects that were submitted to the Commission. Of the total, majority of the projects were under the bioenergy and wind energy categories.
Thirteen carbon capture and storage facilities and 65 renewable energy projects are now under consideration.
Britain is one of the countries which occasionally tap the 4.5-billion euro fund. The British government submitted a dozen clean energy projects, seven of which are carbon capture and storage facilities, four are marine energy projects, and one of which is a wind energy venture, for approval.
The European Investment Bank will now evaluate the projects, which will run for nine months. The bank will then consult the European Union Climate Change Committee, which will then vote for the projects they will support.
The decision is expected to come out mid next year.