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The European Commission (EC) on Monday approved, under state aid rules, a EUR-2.9-billion (USD 3.17bn) French tax credit scheme to support the production of solar panels, batteries, wind turbines and heat pumps, as well as associated key components and critical raw materials.
The scheme will be open to companies planning projects to invest in the production of such equipment, with aid to be granted until December 31, 2025.
The measure was assessed under the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework, which has since March 2023 enabled member states to design simple and effective schemes to support investments in net-zero equipment, said Margrethe Vestager, executive vice-president in charge of competition policy.
“It follows the approval of similar schemes in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, and Spain, worth in total EUR 9.1 billion, and with several others in the pipeline,” Vestager added.
On Monday, the EC also approved EUR 902 million in German state aid to help Swedish battery producer Northvolt to build a gigafactory in the city of Heide with an annual capacity of 60 GWh. Thanks to the aid, which includes a EUR-700-million direct grant and a EUR-202-million guarantee, Northvolt will build the plant in Europe instead of the US, which offers support under the Inflation Reduction Act.
“It is the first individual measure that was approved in line with the exceptional possibility under the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework. It allows for providing higher amounts of aid if the investment is at risk of being diverted from Europe due to the availability of foreign subsidies,” said Vestager.
(EUR 1 = USD 1.094)
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