Two calls from Horizon Europe for energy projects

Last month, the European Commission launched two new calls for sustainability and energy efficiency projects under the Horizon Europe programme: Sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply, with a budget of €138.6 million, and Highly energy-efficient and climate-neutral European building stock, which has a budget of €50 million. In both cases, the deadline for submitting proposals is 4 February 2025.

In the first instance, the aim is to develop and demonstrate innovative solutions in the field of renewable energy that will increase efficiency, improve management, and reduce costs to achieve greater deployment. The second call seeks to develop and demonstrate innovative solutions to ensure highly efficient buildings with minimal carbon footprint, as well as to renovate the European building stock to enhance efficiency.

Natxo de Marco, leader of the Energy knowledge area at Zabala Innovation, emphasises the relevance of these calls in the current context: “These grants are an opportunity for researchers and companies to address Europe’s energy challenges and contribute to a transition towards cleaner and more sustainable energy sources.” De Marco underlines that, with the advancement of the climate crisis and increasing concerns about energy dependence, “research and innovation are essential for developing solutions that are not only technologically viable but also economically competitive, socially accepted, and feasible to transform into reality”.

These two calls finance three types of actions. On the one hand, innovation actions (IA) aim to develop technical solutions that are not yet commercially available and are at the laboratory stage. The purpose is to demonstrate their functioning in real environments, which will facilitate their subsequent replication in the market. On the other hand, research and innovation actions (RIA) focus on establishing new knowledge or assessing the viability of technologies and products, including basic and applied research. Finally, coordination and support actions (CSA) seek to structure communities of stakeholders and disseminate research results to minimise the non-technical barriers faced by the deployment of new energy solutions.

Horizon Europe energy calls’ topics

The new calls include a series of topics for which proposals can be submitted, each aimed at improving energy efficiency and developing innovative technologies that facilitate the energy transition of the European Union.

HORIZON-CL5-2024-D3-02: Sustainable, secure and competitive energy supply

In the context of the first call, 13 topics have been defined, covering the areas of global leadership in renewable energy (the first 11) and carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (the last two).

Digital tools for concentrated solar power and solar thermal plants (€6 million). The aim is to improve performance and reduce operational costs of concentrated solar power and thermal plants through the use of digital tools, such as artificial intelligence and digital twins, to optimise the operation and maintenance of facilities.

Development of next-generation synthetic renewable fuel technologies (€12 million). This topic aims to accelerate the readiness of cost-effective technologies for the production of synthetic renewable fuels using renewable energy and carbon dioxide. These technologies are expected to improve process efficiency and minimise emissions, ensuring their sustainability through lifecycle analysis.

Development of smart concepts of integrated energy driven bio-refineries for co-production of advanced biofuels, bio-chemicals and biomaterials (€7 million). This proposal seeks to develop advanced bio-refinery concepts that generate low-cost biofuels, emphasising zero-emission processes and efficient use of biomass, biogenic waste, and algae.

Critical technologies for future ocean energy farms (€8 million). This topic focuses on enhancing ocean energy technology by developing corrosion-resistant materials and innovative anchoring systems, aiming to increase reliability and reduce costs.

PV-integrated electric mobility applications (€14 million). The proposal aims to boost photovoltaic energy generation to create a clean energy system, promoting electric mobility through the development of concepts for photovoltaic integration in vehicles and charging stations that optimise grid demand.

Innovative, community-integrated PV systems (€10 million). In this context, the proposal seeks to expand the role of photovoltaic systems in renewable energy communities, promoting citizen participation through energy cooperatives and decentralised platforms.

Resource efficiency of PV in production, use and disposal (€3 million). This topic aims to enhance the sustainability of photovoltaic technologies throughout their lifecycle, generating employment in Europe and reducing the environmental footprint of their implementation.

Minimisation of environmental and optimisation of socio-economic impacts in the deployment, operation, and decommissioning of offshore wind farms (€10 million). The goal is to improve the sustainability of offshore wind farms by addressing economic, social, and environmental factors, developing modelling tools and assessment metrics.

Demonstrations of innovative floating wind concepts (€3 million). The aim here is to advance knowledge and improve the design and operation of floating wind farms, optimising design systems and demonstrating new technologies in real conditions.

Market uptake measures of renewable energy systems (€8 million). This topic focuses on improving the adoption of renewable energy systems across various sectors, addressing the acceptability of renewable technologies and promoting multidisciplinary approaches to overcome implementation barriers.

Support to the activities of the SET Plan key action area Renewable fuels and bioenergy (€0.60 million). In this line, the aim is to facilitate stakeholder engagement in the renewable fuels and bioenergy sector to ease the energy transition.

CCU for the production of fuels (€15 million). This topic focuses on converting captured carbon dioxide into fuels, developing innovative technologies for the CO2 conversion process, creating new markets, and contributing to a circular economy.

DACCS and BECCS for CO2 removal/negative emissions (€15 million). This topic centres on developing carbon capture and storage technologies to help the European Union achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, integrating innovative solutions with industrial clusters.

HORIZON-CL5-2024-D4-02: Efficient, sustainable and inclusive energy use - Highly energy-efficient and climate-neutral European building stock

The second call focuses on five topics that address solutions for achieving a highly energy-efficient and climate-neutral European building stock.

Industrialisation of sustainable and circular deep renovation workflows (€16 million). This topic seeks to optimise building renovation processes to nearly zero-energy standards, achieving a 30% reduction in waste, 25% in costs, and 30% in working time, while also improving energy performance and construction quality.

Robotics and other automated solutions for construction, renovation and maintenance in a sustainable built environment (€8 million). Here, the aim is to explore robotic and automated solutions to decrease the environmental impact of construction, reducing construction time by 40% and improving resource efficiency.

BIM-based processes and digital twins for facilitating and optimising circular energy renovation (€8 million). Through this topic, the proposal is to use building information modelling and digital twins to support the lifecycle of buildings, improving material reuse and information interoperability.

Design for adaptability, re-use and deconstruction of buildings, in line with the principles of circular economy (€8 million). This approach focuses on increasing the adaptability of buildings and the reuse of materials through innovative tools for deconstruction and revaluation.

Digital solutions to foster participative design, planning and management of buildings, neighbourhoods and urban districts (€10 million). This initiative seeks to develop digital tools to encourage citizen participation in design and management processes, thus increasing acceptance of sustainable renovations and promoting climate resilience in urban environments.