The European Commission picked 77 projects in 23 countries on 19 October to share EUR 3.4 billion from the Innovation Fund, which is paid for by carbon market revenue. The call drew 358 applications asking for EUR 17.5 billion against a budget of EUR 2.9 billion, and all five topics were oversubscribed.
For the first time the list includes a small modular reactor and a direct air capture project, alongside a rare earth magnet line in Estonia and a 5 GW solar factory in Lorraine. The Commission says the projects could avoid about 290 million tonnes of CO2 in their first decade.
None of the money is contracted yet; grant agreements are due in the first quarter of 2027. The carbon market paying for these factories is the one parts of Parliament's centre-right now want to cut back. (European Commission)
Energy Transition
Vattenfall offers 200 MW of balancing power from an offshore wind farm
Vattenfall has prequalified 200 MW of the 416 MW Veja Mate wind farm in the German North Sea to provide balancing power in TenneT's control area. The company says no offshore wind farm has offered more.
Balancing reserves hold grid frequency at 50 hertz when supply and demand drift from forecasts, a job long done by gas plants and pumped hydro. Ørsted, RWE, and Trianel have qualified smaller volumes since 2022. (offshoreWIND.biz)
Poland pays households to add batteries, with a bonus for EU-made kit
Poland's environmental fund NFOŚiGW opened a PLN 1 billion grant programme on 20 October for households that already own rooftop solar. Grants of up to PLN 19,000 cover home batteries and heat storage, backdated to installations from 1 November 2025.
Batteries must hold at least twice the solar system's capacity, and EU-made equipment earns a PLN 2,000 bonus. After subsidising almost 700,000 rooftop systems, the fund now wants owners to use more of their own power. (wnp.pl)
Great British Energy's budget moves to nuclear and the grid
Labour gave Great British Energy GBP 8.3 billion to own and run clean power projects. A POLITICO analysis shows GBP 2.5 billion has since gone to small modular reactor design and site work, and the local power plan shrank from a mooted GBP 3 billion to GBP 1 billion.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham now wants a Great British Grid unit inside the company to co-invest with network operators, reportedly with GBP 4 billion. The government disputes that figure. (POLITICO)
Greece gets a floating wind pilot
Terna Energy and Spain's Saitec plan AEGEANFLOAT, three 15 MW turbines on concrete floating platforms in the Aegean, and won Innovation Fund support this week. Floating platforms suit deep seas like the Aegean, where fixed foundations do not work.
Saitec's platform has run off the Basque coast since 2023. The pilot should produce the data Greek permitting needs, ahead of a 400 MW Thracian Sea project targeted for 2030. (offshoreWIND.biz)
Climate Tech
Rabot Energy raises $50 million to turn home batteries into a power plant
Rabot Energy, a German supplier of dynamic electricity tariffs, closed a $50 million Series B led by Endeit, with the state-backed DeepTech & Climate Fonds joining HV Capital and Bosch Ventures. It has more than 200,000 customers, including about 15,000 businesses, and EUR 200 million in revenue.
Its tariffs shift customers' heat pumps, chargers, and batteries to cheap, renewable hours, and connected batteries can be pooled into a virtual power plant. The target is one million customers. (High-Tech Gründerfonds)
The IEA finds China's electrolyser edge shrinks in Europe
An IEA commentary puts Chinese alkaline electrolysers at USD 500 to 1,100 per kW in 2025, against USD 1,900 to 2,500 elsewhere. China had 35 GW a year of factory capacity for less than 2 GW of demand, and some auction bids fell to USD 170.
But the stack is only 6 to 9% of the cost of hydrogen. A Chinese stack in a European plant cuts total capex by about 8%, and lower efficiency can cancel that, so European makers face a smaller gap than the price tags suggest. (IEA)
Policy & Regulation
Leaders keep ETS2 on schedule but order a new review
Italy, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, and Czechia pushed EU leaders to delay ETS2, the carbon price on heating and road fuel, to 2030. Germany, France, and Spain refused.
The conclusions of 16 October keep the 2028 start but ask the Commission to update its assessment of ETS2's design and safeguards. They also back extended state aid for exposed industry and a faster Market Stability Reserve reform to damp price swings. (European Council)
Estonia fines Futugrid for a bid it did not want filled
Estonia's competition authority fined Futugrid Technologies EUR 16,000 for manipulating the Baltic balancing market, its first decision on market manipulation under the EU's REMIT rules. Paid to stay available, Futugrid had to bid downward balancing energy for 1 April 2025, and priced 1 MW at minus EUR 9,999 per MWh to avoid being called.
The bid was activated anyway and set the marginal balancing price for that quarter hour. As more batteries and aggregators enter balancing markets, the case shows regulators checking that capacity payments buy real availability. (ACER)
Science
Carbon prices and standards each fail a different fairness test
A Joint Research Centre team modelled EU climate policy packages down to household level in Nature Climate Change. Carbon pricing with cash transfers protects poorer households as a group, but leaves wide differences between households on similar incomes; standards narrow those differences but are less progressive.
A budget-neutral mix of pricing, transfers, subsidies, and standards resolves the trade-off. For ETS2, whose critics argue on fairness, that is a quantified case for a package rather than a price alone. (Nature Climate Change)
One to Watch
Thursday's Parliament votes on methane and free allowances
Parliament votes in Strasbourg on 22 October on the Commission's one-year delay to methane rules for oil and gas importers. The EPP wants three years and could find a majority with right-wing and far-right groups, while the Greens want no delay. (POLITICO)
The same day it takes up extra free ETS allowances for steel, cement, fertilisers, and chemicals. The environment committee backed them 66 to 11 on 19 October and added 33 million allowances to the 80 million proposed, according to wnp.pl.
Energy ministers meet on 29 October. Watch whether draft EPP amendments to delete ETS2, or push it to 2031, gain ground before then.