RENEWFM: The EU Renewable Energy Financing Mechanism launches 2nd call for proposals on solar PV and onshore wind

The Commission has launched today the second cross-border tender for renewables under the EU Renewable Energy Financing Mechanism (RENEWFM), based on Member States’ expressions of interest and binding commitments. Established in 2020, the mechanism is aimed at helping EU countries cooperate on renewable energy by hosting or contributing financially to each other’s projects. It is managed by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA). 

The call builds on the commitments by Luxembourg, Finland and Estonia to cooperate under this instrument. Luxembourg is contributing with a voluntary payment of EUR 52.4 million and Finland and Estonia will host the projects which will compete for the support. 

The call, that remains open until 4 March 2025, will support ground mounted solar PV projects located in Finland and onshore wind projects located in Estonia, to be built and commissioned within 2 and 3 years, respectively, from the call closure. 

Check the call for proposals in the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.

To know more about the RENEWFM, you can also find a list of FAQ here. 

Info day

CINEA will organise an info day after the summer, in order to explain information such as the call conditions, award criteria and ranking of the tenders, as well as rules for grant disbursements.

The info day will provide the possibility to raise questions during a Q&A session and find out the conditions to participate in the call.  

The event will also be webcast.

CINEA will publish the specific date and more details in the near future. 

Background

To encourage a greater and more efficient uptake of renewable energy sources across the EU, the European Commission established a cross-border mechanism : the EU Renewable Energy Financing Mechanism (RENEWFM). The Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/1294 of 15 September 2020 on the Union renewable energy financing mechanism sets out the detailed functioning  and legal background of the RENEWFM instrument.

RENEWFM pools financial contributions from participating EU countries and then allocates funding through a system of competitive tenders. It involves countries that make direct payment into the mechanism (contributing countries) and countries that allow physical installations of the new projects on their territory (host countries). The contributing and host countries share the statistical benefits of the renewable energy hence produced.

The financial contributions that enter the financing mechanism scheme will be distributed to the renewable energy projects by the Commission through competitive tenders for grants. The grants cover either the installation of a renewable energy production facility with certain capacity (investment support), or the actual production of renewable energy (operating support). The size of the grant is determined by the outcome of the tender procedure, where only the most competitive projects will be selected and receive support, corresponding to their bid in the tender. The general principle of the RENEWFM is to rank applications according to the lowest price offer per MW.

More information about the mechanism

For any queries, you can email CINEA directly at: CINEA-RENEWFMec [dot] europa [dot] eu (CINEA-RENEWFM[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)