Government Sets Maximum Public Allocation of €15 Million Per Project to Boost Sustainable Energy Initiatives.
Lisbon– Portugal’s government announced on Tuesday that it had approved the incentive regulation for hydrogen and other renewable gases, with a public allocation of €15 million. The regulation aims to increase the contribution of these sources to energy consumption.
“With a maximum public allocation of €15 million per project and beneficiary organisation, this incentive system provides for the energy recovery of the organic component of waste, covering sludge from wastewater treatment plants, agricultural and industrial effluents,” the executive said in a statement.
To be implemented as part of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), the incentive will be awarded through a call for tenders, “based on objective, transparent and non-discriminatory criteria”, and operationalised through the Environmental Fund, under the supervision of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy.
According to the decree published in the Diário da República and which approves the regulations for this incentive system, the aim is to “support mature technologies with a ‘technological maturity level’ or ‘TRL – Techonology Readiness Levels’ greater than 8, encouraging not only the production of renewable hydrogen but also the production of other renewable gases through energy recovery from the organic component of urban waste, sludge from wastewater treatment plants, agricultural and industrial effluents, among others (excluding plastic waste)”.
Quoted in the statement, the Minister for the Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, said that “this regulation is yet another of the fundamental measures that the government has been implementing in the area of energy and which will increase the production of hydrogen and other renewable gases in energy consumption, in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce energy dependence and improve the security of energy supply”.
“It is also an incentive for innovation and the development of sustainable projects, contributing to the diversification of the national energy market,” reads the statement.
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