Open call to support the production of renewable gases

Duarte Cordeiro, the Portuguese Minister for Environment & Climate Action, said that his country's strong focus on low-cost wind and solar power will allow the production of hydrogen and other renewable gases at competitive prices and ensure greater energy independence. 

Portugal plans more hydrogen and renewable gases plants, produced using renewable energy and tested technologies (with TRL equal to or greater than 8). For that, it has unveiled its second call to support those projects, mainly the ones that:

• Make use of alternative water sources
• Use biowaste
• Are at an advanced stage of development
• Contribute to decarbonisation (above 6,000 tCO2-eq/MW)
• Have a production capacity equal or superior to 5 MW-output

Legal entities, public or private, that develop these projects in mainland Portugal are considered as beneficiaries. The deadline for the plant to be in operational status is 31/12/2025.

With a budget of EUR 83M, which may be increased by surplus funds from previous programs (POSEUR, among others), the maximum funding per beneficiary and operation will be EUR 15M. 

Applications approved under POSEUR-01-2020-19, C14 RRP or implemented under the cohesion programs for the period of 2014-2020 relating to SAFE measures (Supporting Affordable Energy) will not be eligible unless the following conditions are met cumulatively:

• There is a formalised withdrawal or termination of the contract
• The corresponding financing has not been paid
• The applicants waive their right to such payment
• If any amount has been paid, it has been returned and there are no amounts to be regularized

In these cases, the maximum eligible value to be attributed to these applications cannot be higher than the one attributed under the previous funding.

The maximum co-financing rate is 100%, which applies to all expenses considered eligible (e.g. production technologies, engineering works, software, among others essential to set up the operation), without prejudice to the possibility of adjusting it to the 85% limit if it proves to be necessary to meet the goals of the call.

This call for proposals will close on 31/07/2023 (23:59), however you must request a prior opinion from DGEG on the typology by 15/06/2023.

This step and the instruction of the request for prior registration for the production of gases from renewable origin must be treated before the effective submission of the application.

These grants will be awarded to few production technologies and renewable gases:

Hydrogen production technologies:

1. Electrolysis
2. Gasification, pyrolysis and thermolysis
3. Biophotolysis and fermentation

Technologies for biomethane production:

1. Biogas enrichment from anaerobic digestion of biomass materials
2. Thermochemical and hydrothermal processes (gasification and pyrolysis)
3. Biogas enrichment of anaerobic digestion of biowaste from selective collection

Renewable synthetic gas production technology

1. Methanation

Support for biogas production remains excluded from this call. However, according to the National Waste Management Plan 2030, it is considered to future calls that focus on the recovery of biowaste resulting from waste treatment in order to reintroduce it into the economy, as energy, biogas, or compost.

For more information: https://www.fundoambiental.pt/apoios-prr/c14-hidrogenio-e-renovaveis/02c14-i012023-hidrogenio-e-gases-renovaveis.aspx